The Bug
by I Am A Toad
Summary: When an ancient evil is released from its chains, it threatens to rip apart the fabric of time itself. Join Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Bowser as they, along with a diverse group of allies, struggle to overcome this mysterious new foe. Book One of the Glitch Trilogy. ON HIATUS until further notice.
1. Professor Elvin Gadd's Amazing Discovery

**Hello, readers of FanFiction! I am I Am A Toad (that sounds very strange), and this is my first FanFiction! Yay! So, now that that's out of the way, let's a-go!**

 **DISCLAIMER: I do not own the rights to any of Nintendo's characters. That is because Nintendo owns them.  
**

* * *

 _Chapter I: Professor Elvin Gadd's Amazing Discovery_

Elvin Gadd was getting close to something huge – he could feel it. Ever since he had gotten wind of the existence of other universes, other dimensions parallel to his own, he had worked tirelessly to decipher their mysteries. But it was not as easy as he had first imagined, for there existed a place _between_ dimensions – which was where the towns of Flipside and Flopside were built. And so for four months he had searched; gathering clues, collecting data, slowly unraveling the mysteries of time and space. Finally, his work was about to pay off.

Two weeks before, E. Gadd had been stuck. He seemed to be missing one key piece of the puzzle, but he couldn't figure out what. Then, by a stroke of pure luck, he had found that piece. It had happened on one of those rare occasions when he ventured out of his bunker in Evershade Valley to go grocery shopping. As he walked out of the store, Mario had suddenly appeared in front of him, and he remembered how his young assistant/ghost-hunter/temporary slave Luigi had told him how Mario could travel to the second dimension. _Inter-dimensional travel,_ he had thought. _Of course!_

Then, it was simply a matter of convincing Mario to come to his lab, and then tracking the distortions he made when he switched to 2D, and back to 3D again. Finally, all he had to do was chart different possibilities for an algorithm to travel to the fourth dimension – time.

Unfortunately, most of those algorithms had failed, resulting in a lot of disappointment and even more explosions. Now, E. Gadd had one equation left – and he was confident it would work. He had to be, or else all of his toil would go to waste. Slowly, almost reluctantly, the professor entered the last algorithm into his machine, which was designed to travel into time itself – assuming it didn't blow up, spontaneously combust, or start belching rainbows like the previous fifty-seven portals.

The portal began to hum, and an ethereal green light began to manifest in the center. It got louder and louder, and the light got brighter and brighter, and the machine louder still, and the light even brighter, and... it stopped. Elvin sighed. Deep in his heart, he'd suspected as much. He turned around and waited for the inevitable detonation.

Suddenly, an unseen, noiseless force knocked him to the floor. Groaning, the professor pulled himself back up. _Something was odd about that explosion..._ he thought as he turned to look at what he expected to be a pile of charred and melted metal. Instead, he was greeted by the sight of his portal – still exactly the same, except now, in the middle, there was a swirling, otherworldly green vortex.

"Holy mother of..." he gasped. "Eureka! It worked! The algorithm – it worked! I've done it! I've discovered time itself!"

The reckless part of E. Gadd wanted to explore the world beyond the portal, but the logical part of him knew that it was dangerous. Still, his reckless side gave in, and he leaned into the spiral. "What the..." he muttered.

The professor did not know what he had been expecting, but it was certainly not _this_. The portal was an island in a seemingly endless black void. Throughout the void, there were long chains of numbers – ones and zeroes. Attempting to get a closer look, E. Gadd leaned farther still into the portal. Unfortunately, in doing so, he caused his glasses to plummet into the abyss.

Just then, a new string of numbers erupted into existence right in front of him, and he tumbled back into his own world. However, not wanting to lose such a valuable specimen, he grabbed the chain and pulled it back with him. After he got a new pair of glasses, he whirled around to find that the amount of numbers had nearly tripled in the time he wasn't looking. "Incredible..." he breathed. "Absolutely incredible."

Upon closer inspection, he found that not only was the string expanding at a rapid rate, but its appearance also changed if he got closer to it. It didn't take him long to realize that he was witnessing his immediate past – him losing his glasses, him getting new ones – as if it were a movie. In fact, each ten numbers or so seemed to represent a frame of the movie – hence the string's swift growth.

An idea began to form in E. Gadd's head. An idea so horrible and yet so amazing, he couldn't help but test it out. He found the frame that represented him losing his glasses – close to the beginning of the set – and altered it. He didn't exactly know how, but he changed a couple of zeroes to ones and vice versa, and the frame changed. A moment later, another pair of glasses flickered in front of him before succumbing to gravity and falling onto the floor.

Suddenly, it dawned on the professor: he had changed time. Which meant, the fourth dimension contained everything that ever was and would be. Which meant, he had time in his bunker. Which, in turn, meant that eventually his bunker, and soon all of Evershade Valley, would be filled with the stuff. Which meant that he had to get it out of there _now._

Briskly, he found the end of the chain, and shoved it back through the portal. Forty-seven minutes later, he had the last of it out. "Whew," he wheezed. "I haven't gotten that much exercise since before the Shroob invasion!" With that, he collapsed onto his couch and fell asleep. Not once did he think about the repercussions of his actions.

* * *

As E. Gadd dozed, something else awoke from its slumber. It glanced up at the swirling green portal far above it and grinned a malicious grin. Soon it would be free. Soon it would have its revenge.

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… **And that's Chapter 1! Be sure to read and review!**

 **'Til next time,**

 **~I Am A Toad**


	2. Glitch

**So... Chapter 2!**

 **DISCLAIMER: The rights to all the characters in this story (excluding any OC's) go to Nintendo.**

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 _Chapter II: Glitch_

The next day, E. Gadd, eager to explore the new dimension much more thoroughly than the day before, got to work immediately. First, he traveled to his lab in the Gloomy Manor to assemble his Greenie assistants. Upon arrival, he was pleased to see that all of his experiments had been cared for (after the whole Dark Moon incident, he didn't visit _that_ one very often), and that the ghosts had even tended to that old car he kept in the garage.

Next, with an army of Greenies following him, he traveled back to his bunker and had them get to work on constructing a giant container to hold one of those time-strands that filled the dimension, for the professor dearly wanted a specimen of one of them. Unfortunately, he realized that such a specimen would be impossible due to the expansive nature of the strings. So, he had the ghosts chuck the container down the portal, in the interest of recording gravity in the dimension.

As it turned out, the gravity decreased further away from the portal, and E. Gadd planned accordingly. It was reasonable to assume that the same principle applied to oxygen within the void (which E. Gadd decided to call the Time Realm for obvious reasons), and as such the professor had a small group of Greenies find a spacesuit for him. The rest of the Greenies he told to build an airlock-like dome around the portal, and therefore around the gravity and air.

E. Gadd, for his part, ran calculations on how many strings there were in the dimension. Needless to say, his results were very inconclusive, ranging from about 900,000 to 4,686,328,234,793,346,138,058,582,231. Maybe even higher, but at that point the professor had a headache and did not want to think about it.

Luckily for him, at that moment a small group of Greenies floated through the wall of the bunker, holding a white spacesuit. After assuring that the ghosts had not stolen it (there had been an incident in which a company had sued E. Gadd for plagiarizing one of their inventions after he had asked his Greenies to "help him come up with ideas"), he immediately tried it on, only to find that it was much too large. And so, thirty minutes, one sewing machine, and a whole lot of duct tape later, the spacesuit was more-or-less optimized for "time travel" (Ha! Time pun!). After that ordeal, E. Gadd decided to allow himself a well-deserved nap and wait for the ghosts in the portal to finish building the airlock.

* * *

In actuality, the aforementioned ghosts had finished building the airlock a good fifteen minutes before, and at that moment were in the process of figuring out how to move the professor into the area without rousing him. Eventually, they decided to give up and settle for playing cards. Besides, it wasn't like anything was out there... right?

Naturally, the ghosts' reasoning was completely _wrong_. There was, in fact, something out there, and it had every intention of getting into the airlock. Finally, it could escape that accursed dimension, and nothing, especially not a bunch of witless green wraiths, was going to get in its way. _Then again,_ it considered, _I'm just a manifestation myself._ Unfortunately, that just served to make it angrier. It was nothing more than a hologram – a mere projection; an apparition. And that made it want to get revenge on those who had opposed it – to give them a taste of its suffering. It was with this pure fury and hatred at its enemies that the being was able to warp the metal door, and rip it right of its hinges, sending it floating into the void.

This, as a consequence, got the Greenies' attentions. Unfortunately, whereas the being knew what it was up against, they did not. Needless to say, they found out that just as in outer space, in the Time Realm, nobody can hear you scream, which was quite unfortunate.

The entity chortled wickedly to itself, for it relished in the suffering of others, as it trekked onward. Unable to resist itself, it destroyed several parts of the airlock just for the heck of it, until by the time it was nearing the portal, it was nothing more than an assortment of stainless steel bars, playing cards, and chunks of superglue barely able to stay aloft in the abyss that was the Time Realm. Unluckily for the structure, the being couldn't help but extend its hand to blast one more bar into shrapnel before it floated through the gateway to another world. This bar happened to be one of the key pieces of the airlock, and, as a result, the entire dome collapsed with a resounding _crash._

Said _crash_ also just happened to awaken E. Gadd. Inwardly, the being cursed, as it should've known that the Greenies were to stupid to have built the portal themselves. On the other hand, the professor looked weak, and he didn't look too balanced in that suit of his – it reckoned it could chuck him into the portal easily. _At least my powers weren't lost in translation,_ it grumbled to itself.

"Wh-who are you?" the professor sputtered. "How did you get in here?" He had awoken to the sight of a collection of turquoise squares that vaguely made up the shape of a hovering human being – except that they kept flickering; changing form. "A-are you some kind of phantom?"

The entity decided to toy with the old man. " **I am nobody – yet I have all.** " It levitated one of the professor's published books until it was swirling around it. " **I can alter the course of man's past – or ensure its future.** " It caused more furniture to begin revolving around itself. " **I am ageless. I am immortal.** " By now, it had a miniature tornado surrounding it. " **For countless centuries I have been imprisoned in that accursed place. But no longer.** " Its form was now almost completely obscured, but it could see perfectly well the mixture of fascination and horror on E. Gadd's face. " **You would ask who I am? I am nameless... but you may call me...** " It caused the squares that were once its eyes to turn a malicious blood-red. " **...Glitch.** "

With that, the being caused E. Gadd to rise into the air and tossed him into the portal. The last thing the professor heard before he blacked out was Giltch's hateful laughter echoing throughout the void.

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 **Chapter 2! Be sure to review, favorite, follow, etc!**

 **Also, I think I'll try to make chapters longer from now on! :P**

 **~I Am A Toad**


	3. On Tour At Yoshi's Island

**Here's Chapter 3!**

 **I forgot to do this last time, but thanks to Chibinum, YinWriter, and Avalain Nightshade for following/favoriting!**

 **Also, the chapter came out really quickly... I had _way_ too much free time today.**

 **DISCLAIMER: I don't own Mario, because if I did, Paper Mario: Sticker Star would have actually been a Paper Mario game.**

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 _Chapter III: On Tour At Yoshi's Island_

"Bro. Bro, wake up. Bro!"

"Huh?" Mario, still half-asleep, groggily lifted his head up. "Five 'ore mi'utes..." he mumbled before burying his face in his pillow.

"C'mon, bro! Wake up!"

" _Oh, for pity's sake, wake up already, Mario!_ "

"Ah! I'm up, I'm up!" The man in red blasted out of his bed and was greeted by the sight of Luigi and Princess Peach hovering over him.

"It's about time," grumbled Peach. "You were sleeping for so long that the rest of the tour group had to go on without you!"

"Wait... tour group?" Mario inquired confusedly.

"He's still out of it," Luigi whispered rather loudly. "Yeah, bro! Don't you remember? We're on vacation to Yoshi's Island, and Yoshi offered us a tour!"

"Ooooh!" exclaimed Mario. "I remember now! Wait, what time is it?

"It's ten o' clock. We've been trying to rouse you _forever!_ " scolded Peach.

"Wasn't the tour group supposed to leave at nine thirty?

"Yes!" they replied simultaneously.

"Mama-mia!" cried Mario.

"Now, if you hurry," Peach fussed, "we might be able to catch up to the rest of them!"

"Okey-dokey! Now, _get out of my room!_ I'm gonna get dressed, you know!"

Five minutes later, Mario was ready to go. He scrambled out of his and Luigi's bedroom and into the small living room. In the time since his last visit, a small hotel had been constructed on the shore, which the Yoshi's were none too happy about. Fortunately, it was, for the most part, out of the way from the islanders' homes.

"Ugh! Finally!" muttered Peach angrily. "Now, Luigi, do you have the backpack with all the supplies?" The green plumber nodded. "Okay, let's get going. The others can't be too far ahead."

Without another word, the trio set off. Mario hummed contentedly as he walked along the shore toward the village. He could see why the isle was such a popular tourist destination. However, his train of thought was interrupted by Luigi.

"Look! I see them!"

Mario looked toward the village and noticed the group as well. "It looks like they're watching the Mushroom Derby," he said to no one in particular.

"I think that the race is going to end soon," the princess observed. "Let's go before we lose them!"

The three raced toward the village, and manged to get there just as the Derby was ending.

"Toadsworth!" Peach called. "Over here!"

The elderly Toad turned in the direction of the voice. "Ah! Master Mario, Master Luigi!" he greeted. "Your Majesty," he said, bowing.

The rest of the group had at this point stopped. It consisted of Yoshi, who was leading, as well as Toadsworth, Toad, and Toadette.

"Hi, guys!" Luigi addressed brightly. "Sorry we're late! What'd we miss?"

"Oh, not much," replied Yoshi. "All I showed them so far was the Mushroom Derby."

"It took _forever_ for them to set it up!" Toadette added.

"So... where are we going now?" Mario asked politely, ignoring Toadette's complaint.

"Well, I was _going_ to show you the Yellow Switch Palace," said the dinosaur, "but Toadette _really_ wanted to see the Super Happy Tree. And by see it, I mean that she wanted to take a fruit from it and plant the seeds in the Mushroom Kingdom."

"Wouldn't that just make a tree of whatever fruit she's gonna take?" inquired Luigi.

"That's what _I_ said," Toad agreed.

"No!" Toadette screamed. "It will grow into a Super Happy Tree, and everybody will be happy, and Princess Peach will never be kidnapped again because I'll plant more seeds in Dark Land and Bowser will be happy, because the only reason he kidnaps her is because he's unhappy, and..." She would've continued, but at that point she noticed that the group had moved on without her. "Hey! Wait up!"

* * *

As they walked through the jungle, Yoshi informed the group about the flora and fauna of that area. "In the trees you may notice small, monkey-like animals. Those are Ukikis. They're normally harmless, unless you provoke them..." A Ukiki, whom Toad had been poking with a stick, began spitting seeds at them. "...like that," he finished lamely.

"Eep!" shrieked Peach, who had gotten hit by a projectile.

Yoshi winced apologetically. "Let's get to the Tree before they start dropping bombs."

Just then, a bomb dropped on Toadsworth's head, covering him from head to toe with soot. "Too late," he murmured.

After what seemed like a very painful eternity, but was in reality a very painful eight minutes, the six travelers and one native arrived at the Tree.

Toadette gasped with delight. " _It's so happy!_ It's the happiest thing I've ever seen!" she squealed. "Oh my gosh! Are those Heart Fruits? I _so_ want one! I can make Bowser Super Happy and then he won't kidnap Peach and we can all live Super Happily ever after and..."

"I think we should've just gone to the Palace," groaned Toad, who had long since gotten tired of his sister's enthusiasm.

"I concur," agreed Mario, who had recently gotten tired of Toadette's enthusiasm.

"Alright!" declared Yoshi abruptly. "Now let's go to the Yellow Switch Palace! Who's with me!?"

"Me," chorused five of his companions.

"I'm not," cried the other one. "I'm not nearly Super Happy enough and I haven't even tried all of the fruits and I haven't gotten to see the Tree from all angles and I haven't even gotten to climb the Tree and I haven't gotten to look at the leaves of the Tree and..."

The Toad girl's speech was interrupted by a loud noise coming from the direction of the village.

"What was that?" wondered Luigi anxiously.

"I don't know, but in my experience, rumbling noises are usually bad news," replied his brother.

"So, what're we waiting for?" Peach was tapping her foot impatiently.

"Her..." Yoshi motioned to the Tree, whose trunk was being hugged by... you guessed it! Toadette.

"Not anymore!" exclaimed Toad, who was now dragging a complaining Toad girl slowly away from the Tree.

"Okey-dokey! Let's-a go!" Mario proclaimed before bounding back towards the village, the rest of his friends in hot pursuit.

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 **A/N: Just to clarify, in my Mario fanfic universe, Toad and Toadette are twin siblings. Also, more of the major characters are revealed! *checks names off list* Yeah... still a lot more to go...**

 **Internet brownies,**

 **~I Am A Toad**


	4. First Encounter

**Sorry this chapter took a little while. Two words: Comic Con. ...I rest my case.**

 **Thanks to lisahelene for following/favoriting!**

 **DISCLAIMER: I do not own Mario. If I did, I would have made Super Mario Galaxy 3 already!**

* * *

 _Chapter IV:_ _First Encounter_

"...and then we can take the Ukikis home and we can dress them up and give them luxury bedrooms in the castle and have them make strawberry shortcake and then we'll all eat the cake and we can play with them..." Toadette rambled on as the group ran toward the village.

"Toadette," gasped her brother in front of her, " _please_ shut up. Besides, I think you're agitating the monkeys."

"Why d'you say that?" she inquired cheerfully. However, before her brother could formulate a response, she was abruptly pelted with seeds from all angles. ...Needless to say, she took Toad's advice and shut up.

* * *

When they reached the village, the first thing they noticed was the eerie silence. The only audible noises were the rustling in the jungle behind it and the waves lapping at the shore in front. "Where could everyone be?" Peach voiced.

"I have no idea," replied Yoshi, mystified.

"It must be connected to that rumbling noise we heard earlier," deduced Luigi.

"Wait... that's it!" exclaimed Yoshi. "That noise sounded just like a Yoshi stampede!"

"Yoshis stampede?" questioned Toad.

"Yes," replied Mario. "One of my partners in my adventure at Rogueport could summon a stampede at will."

"Oh."

"So," continued Yoshi, "something in the village must've caused everyone to run away."

"But what?" asked Luigi.

"I don't know, but we should probably follow the trail that the Yoshis left," said Peach, quick to get down to business.

It was then that they heard the voice. It sounded distorted, as if they were hearing it from a walkie-talkie with bad reception. " **Well, well, well. Looks like some of you pesky little dinosaurs had the brains to** _ **not**_ **run in plain sight. I must say, I'm disappointed. It won't do any good for me to have slaves who try to run away, now would it? Tsk, tsk. I guess I'll just have to dispose of you.** "

The group looked at each other in fear. "Hide," hissed Mario, before climbing one of the palm trees. The rest of them immediately acknowledged this. Luigi and Toadsworth hid behind one of the Yoshi's huts. The Princess and Toad climbed up the tree next to Mario, while Yoshi and Toadette hid in one of the empty nests.

From his vantage point in the tree, Mario could clearly see the owner of the voice. It had a flickering, vaguely human form. It was almost completely a glowing shade of aquamarine, if not for the ruby red dots where the eyes should've been. There was also the fact that it was hovering two feet above the ground.

Even more horrible was the sight behind it. About twenty Yoshis – all residents of the island, Mario assumed – drifted in midair behind the being. Some struggled in a vain attempt to escape, but most just hung their heads down limply, as if they had simply given up.

" **Come out, come out, wherever you are,** " the entity mocked. " **You can run but you can't hide... no wait, scratch that! You can't run, either!** " It gestured towards the multicolored dinosaurs behind it.

The man in red shot a glance at Luigi below him. He gestured toward himself, then at him, then made an arc with his hand before pointing toward the being. The message was simple: both of them would jump on it at the same time. Unfortunately, Luigi didn't find it to be as simple. Equally unfortunately, that minor movement caught the entity's attention.

" **Aha!** " it shouted.

It extended its hand, and Mario found himself gravitating toward the being. Panicking, he wildly flailed his arms in an attempt to find a place to hold onto, but he could find no purchase on the palm tree. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the others faced with the same situation as him – the only one having any real luck was Toad, who had managed to grab the trunk of the tree he'd climbed, but soon he was pulled in as well.

"Eep!" Toadette screeched, clenching Yoshi's arm. "Get away from me, you turquoise freak!"

"What even are you!?" Luigi stammered. "Why are you here?"

" **I could ask the same thing of you,** " it sneered coldly. " **But very well... I suppose a proper intoduction is in order.** " It cleared its throat. " **In my time, I was known as many things. But now, I am simply... a hologram; an apparition – a glitch.** " His words became increasingly bitter, and his grip on them tightened. " **I have found, however, that this form has certain... advantages.** "

"Advantages? Yeah, no kidding..." Toad muttered.

" **I am matter... I am antimatter... I can change your past... I can secure your future... I consume time-** "

"Hey!" Peach interjected.

" **What?** " Glitch glared at her, annoyed.

"That's basically Culex's speech, but with minor variations!"

"Yeah!" Mario added.

" **You would dare interrupt me for something as trivial as** _ **that**_ **? Humans, you have sealed your fates! Prepare to be vanquished!** " it declared.

Glitch rose higher and higher into the air, until the heroes could see the whole of Yoshi's Island. Then, abruptly, it dropped them.

"Aaaahhhh!" screamed six of them. The other one just shrugged, grabbed the three Toads, and took out her parasol.

"Many thanks, Your Grace!" Toadsworth gasped.

Meanwhile, Yoshi had managed to get Luigi into his mouth and was in the process of trying to figure out how to get Mario onto his back. While this normally wouldn't have been an issue, Mario was much too far above Yoshi for him to be able to get on. Fortunately, the red plumber solved this problem by ground-pounding, then stopping once he was close enough to grab onto Yoshi.

Once they all safely reached the ground (Yoshi had flutter-jumped before impact), they decided that it would be in their best interest to ambush Glitch once it reached the surface.

Unluckily for them, it just so happened that Glitch did not take kindly to have its victims survive plummeting down 5,000 feet. In fact, it was so livid, that it happened to levitate all of the huts in the village – revealing their hiding places again. " **You!** " it snarled. It proceeded to once again draw them toward it, but this time, one of them was prepared.

That one being Toad, who had managed to grab the Mushroom Derby banner, and was swinging it like a whip at Glitch. That proved to be entirely unsuccessful, as the banner just phased right through it. Glitch flashed a malicious smile, before taking control of the banner and using it to swipe at Toad. This, in turn, caused him to knock into Toadsworth and Toadette, knocking all three unconscious. Glitch then relinquished its hold on them, dropping them onto a nearby bush.

"What!?" Luigi cried. "That's not fair! How are we supposed to hit you if you're not even there!?"

" **Oh, but I am here... You just aren't supposed to hit me!** " Glitch smirked. He then caused all four of the remaining heroes to pass right through him. Consequently, this caused them to bump into each other.

"Okay," whispered Mario, annoyed, "we have to find a way to make him solid. Otherwise he'll just keep doing stuff like _that_ to us."

"That's it!" Peach exclaimed quietly. "Luigi, turn around." With some difficulty, the man in green eventually managed to rotate in midair so that his back was to Peach. Then, with equal difficulty, the aforementioned princess reached out to open the backpack she'd made him keep with him.

"Let's see here," she murmured to herself as she rummaged through the backpack, "no, no, no... ah! Here it is!" She triumphantly raised three Ice Flowers. "Now, let's use these before you-know-who notices."

"You-know-who" currently had its back turned to them, as it was pondering what jobs it would assign its captive Yoshi servants.

Mario, Luigi, and Peach all held an Ice Flower in their hands, willing its power to seep into their veins. Mario felt the familiar rush of cool air that came with the power-up, followed by the noise that came when it reached full power.

Rather unluckily, the noise, which was normally relatively quiet, had combined with the sound from the other power-ups to make it loud enough to be heard by Glitch. Instantaneously, it turned to the sight of three powered-up humans and one very fearful-looking dinosaur. " **What!?** " it gasped in surprise.

A split second later, Peach yelled, "Now!" She, Mario, and Luigi released two balls of ice each in rapid succession.

Another split second later, Glitch had came to its senses and absorbed the power of the ice. It then absorbed the rest of the frosty essence into itself, causing itself to power up. " **Naughty humans,** " Glitch sneered. It then released a monumental gale of ice that froze everyone that didn't have the reflexes to duck – that is to say, everyone but Mario. With no need for them anymore, it dropped the ice sculptures of Luigi, Peach, and Yoshi into the village below, where they, amazingly, landed in a remarkably soft nest.

Metaphorically frozen with fear, Mario tried his best to look brave in front of Glitch. It wasn't working, perhaps because of the unnerving speech it was giving.

" **Hmm... what should I do with you? I can't make you my slave; you'd probably run away. Maybe I could leave you in the jungle at the mercy of the Ukikis... nah, you might be able to fend them off. I could leave you to drown in the middle of the ocean... no, you look like a strong swimmer. Perhaps...** " it eyed Mario with a devious look. " **...I could just do** _ **this**_ **!** " Glitch rose up swiftly, then, at its highest point, abruptly released its grip on him.

 _Well, this would be a stupid way to die,_ was the last thing that went through Mario's head before he crashed through a hut's roof.

* * *

 **Be sure to read, and subsequently review! Also, in your review, feel free to ask questions about the chapter that you just read! (Confused yet?)**

 **R.I.P. Satoru Iwata, CEO of Nintendo :(**

 **~I Am A Toad**


	5. Distortion

**Thanks to symcmahon for following/favoriting!**

 **DISCLAIMER: I do not own the rights to Mario, as if I did, I would not have vetoed Peach's evil clone in Mario Tennis. (THE WORLD NEEDS WARUPICHI!)**

* * *

 _Chapter V: Distortion_

 _Ugh..._ thought Mario as he awoke from his slumber. _What happened...?_ He rubbed his temples, for he had an excruciating headache.

 _Where am I...?_ He examined his surroundings. He appeared to be in some sort of hut, as it was nothing more than a roof and some supports open to the elements. He was lying in a crate of berries, identical to many others in the shelter. Above him, there was a gaping hole in the roof.

It was then that he remembered. "Mama-mia!" he exclaimed out loud. "The others!" He raced out of the hut and into the open village, where he and his friends had been defeated by Glitch. He found Luigi, Peach, and Yoshi in a nearby nest, half-frozen and very irritated.

"Finally!" cried Yoshi. "One of you woke up! The ice melted on our heads and torsos, but nowhere else! We couldn't even move!"

"We were stuck like this for hours... er, actually it was only for about an hour and a half," Luigi unhelpfully added.

"I couldn't even move my legs!" Peach wailed. "Now I have the nastiest case of pins and needles _ever_!

"Okay, I get it," muttered Mario. "This is why I always keep a spare Fire Flower in my hat!" He pulled an orange blossom out of his cap, then shot three flaming spheres at each half-ice sculpture.

"Oh, that feels _so_ much better!" Peach proclaimed, relieved.

"Okay, now all we need to do is wake the Toads, and we'll all be good," announced Mario.

"Already got them!" came Luigi's voice.

"My back hurts!" Toadsworth moaned. "As in, even more so than usual!"

"We can talk about your arthritis later," Mario told him. "Right now, we should figure out where Glitch is going."

Just then, they heard a rustling in the bushes. "Did you hear that?" Yoshi asked his comrades cautiously.

"Oh, no!" wailed Toadette. "Glitch is coming back to kill us! Everyone run for your lives!" She, her brother, and Luigi tried to do just that, but were grabbed by Peach before they could get away.

"Glitch floats, remember?" she reminded them.

"And besides," added Yoshi, "Glitch would just phase right through the bushes. This is probably..." An expression that could've been interpreted either as a small smile or a rather large frown crept onto the dinosaur's face. "Oh, I know exactly who this is."

Slowly, he tiptoed toward the bush where the noise originated from. Abruptly, he pushed through the leaves to reveal a blue Yoshi with a spiked collar and sunglasses. "Aha!" he shouted triumphantly. "I knew it!"

"Who the heck is _that_?" inquired Luigi.

"My name is Boshi," the blue Yoshi snapped, irritated that his rival had discovered him.

"Wow, that's an uncreative name," Toad remarked. "It's just a portmanteau of 'blue' and 'Yoshi'."

"Says the person named for his own species," said Luigi.

"Let's just agree that our parents were not good at naming us," interjected Yoshi. "Now, want to tell us why you were suspiciously hiding in that bush?"

Seven pairs of eyes focused their gaze on Boshi, who rolled his eyes before starting. "Okay, so I was just minding my own business when that flickerin' freak came along. So, instead of stampedin' like everyone else, I tried to fight the thing, but he totally whipped my tail! Can you _believe_ that!?"

"Yes," everyone responded at once.

Boshi growled. "As I was saying," he continued, "he literally threw me halfway across the island! I would've _died_ if it wasn't for my flutter jump! So then, I used my _awesome_ running skills to run all the way back here, but you guys were already fighting that thing for me! I didn't wanna get in your way, so I decided to take a nice nap in this here bush. But then, when I woke up, my neck was _really_ sore, so I decided to take a stretch. And then, you guys came along. The end!"

Yoshi looked at him incredulously. "So... you want us to believe that that rustling noise we heard... was you _stretching_."

"Uh... yeah," Boshi replied sincerely.

"Yup, I _totally_ believe that!" Yoshi exclaimed sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

"I'm not lyin', y'know," the blue Yoshi growled.

"Where's your evidence?"

"I don't need any evidence! For once in your life, just _believe_ me!"

The others watched the as the argument escalated with a mixture of amusement and horror. Finally, Mario went to intervene. "Guys! Knock it off! We'll never catch Glitch if you keep acting this way!"

Yoshi's face turned red with shame, while Boshi's scowl deepened. "Wait... you didn't defeat that thing?" he whispered. His question was met with silence. His expression changed to a triumphant smirk. "Ha! Finally Yoshi's not better than me at something! Take that!"

Yoshi's face became red once more, but this time with fury. "You little-" was all he could manage, before he was cut off by Princess Peach.

"I have an idea!" she exclaimed in a bright voice that indicated she was _not_ a happy camper. "Let's put aside our petty rivalries for one afternoon so we can follow and destroy the creature with the ability to bring the entire planet to its knees!"

She was met with a barely-audible "Yes, Princess" from Yoshi and a mere grunt from Boshi.

"Well, now that _that's_ all cleared up, does anyone have any idea where exactly Glitch went?" asked Luigi.

"You do realize that's a stupid question, right?" Toad pointed out. "None of us can know because we were all incapacitated, and Boshi can't know because he was sleeping."

Suddenly, Mario collapsed onto the ground, groaning.

"Mario!" gasped practically everyone, except for Luigi, who knew what was happening.

"Ugh..." the man in red groaned. "My head... I think I might be sick..."

"Mario...?" asked Peach gently, as she and Luigi helped him up. "What happened? Are you okay?"

"I know what happened," Luigi responded. "It's happened once before... when he came to his senses, he said he felt like he was being ripped apart..." Everyone winced at this. "Eventually, we found out that one of the side effects of being able to travel between dimensions is being able to feel nearby dimensional rifts."

Peach took her time to reply to this. "So... you're saying that Mario is feeling a rift here on the island..." Her eyes widened. "That might mean..."

"...Glitch," Luigi finished. He turned his gaze to his brother. "Bro... can you tell us where you're feeling this?" When he was met with strange looks, he clarified, "He also had visions of where the rift was."

Mario closed his eyes, then opened them. "I think it's... the Yellow Switch Palace," he supplied, his voice weak. "I may be wrong... there's something... blocking my view..."

"I'll bet you seven coins and Toadsworth's mustache that that's where Glitch is hiding," Peach proclaimed.

"Let's get there as fast as possible!" Yoshi declared. "Mario can just ride on my back until he feels strong enough to run."

And thus, the eight of them headed to the Yellow Switch Palace.

* * *

It was nearly sundown when they got there. Mario had long since recovered and had taken his place leading the group.

"Just for the record," Luigi wheezed, "I am officially happy with Toadette's decision earlier to go see the Super Happy Tree instead of coming here. What kind person would build a palace _here_?! How'd they even get the materials for it up here?! This mountain is literally a vertical incline!"

"He's just overreacting," Mario assured the others. "Also, he's scared of heights."

"Am not!" cried Luigi.

"Uh... yes you are," said Peach in complete seriousness. "Don't deny it."

"Guys, we have more important matters to focus on," Yoshi reminded them.

"Uh... right!" Mario suddenly snapped backed to attention. "I think that the only option for us is to sneak in and see what's going on – with any luck, Glitch will be too occupied ripping apart the fabric of space, time, and reality to notice us. Then we can assess his weaknesses and prepare accordingly."

"But why...?" Boshi whined. "It would be better to just take him down now, when he's not expecting it!"

His green rival groaned. "Think about it for once, Boshi! We can't hit him! So, if we try to 'take him down,' like you said, he'd just notice us and we'd all be _dead_!"

Boshi stared at him defiantly, but to no avail. Eventually, he crossed his arms and sulkily resigned himself to following the others' lead.

The inside of the Palace was dark and musty. Boshi wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Geez, of all the places to rip a hole in the universe, why would ya do it in _this_ dump?!"

Yoshi looked offended at this. "Why would you say something like that?!" he chastised. "This place is thousands of years old! It's a miracle that it was even built! And that smell? That's the scent of history!"

Both of the dinosaurs were immediately tackled by Toad. "Both of you! _Shut up_!" he hissed. "Do you _want_ us to get caught!?"

Neither responded.

As they progressed through the long hall, they began to notice a faint, lime-green glow in the distance. Soon after, an ethereal mist of the same color enveloped them. "Uh... g-guys... I think we sh-should leave..." whimpered Luigi, his voice trembling.

"What, are you crazy?!" Peach whispered. "I did not get turned into an ice sculpture by a psychotic specter and climb up that Stars-forsaken mountain just to leave at the last minute!"

"Besides," Toadette added, "this is the most excitement I've had since I got kidnapped by that giant bird and then got rescued by Toad and then had to save Toad from that giant bird and then got separated from Toad by that giant bird and-"

"And you wonder why I left you behind to chase that Green Star," Toad grumbled.

"Guys, shh!" Mario shushed. "Do you hear that?"

At this, the entire party strained their ears in attempt to catch what Mario had heard. If they listened closely, they could barely discern the distinctive voice of none other than Glitch.

"Yeah, I hear it." Peach said in response. "Glitch is definitely in here. But where, specifically...?"

"Probably the same place as that light's coming from," came Toadette's voice. She was pointing to the doorway that led to the Yellow Switch, for which the Palace was named.

"...Oh."

Mario grinned. "Perfect! This is perfect! If we all lean against the wall, we should be able to hear what Glitch is saying! Whoever's closest to the door can also see it, too!"

"B-But what if G-Glitch f-finds us...?" Luigi squeaked.

Mario opted not to answer. And so on that happy note, the group edged toward the wall, careful not to step in front of the doorway.

"Okay, Glitch, time to see what you're up to," Mario muttered.

From his spot right next to the opening, the aforementioned plumber had a clear view of the Switch Room. As such, he could clearly see Glitch, though Glitch, who was facing the opposite wall, could not see him. In fact, he was so focused on Glitch that it took him awhile to recognize that there was a rippling green portal directly above the Switch. _So that's what I felt earlier!_ he realized. He then turned his attention to Glitch's speech.

" **...surprised that that old man's machine was actually able to create Centers of Distortion. I haven't seen any of those since my imprisonment!** "

 _Who is he talking about?_ Mario wondered. _Maybe... no, that's impossible... right?_

" **...But enough of my rambling. You all clearly don't care in the slightest. But what you will care about is what I have planned for your little island.** "

 _Wait... who is he talking_ to? Mario pondered. Then it hit him. Around him, the others were coming to the same conclusion.

" _Now_ do you want to use my plan?!" Boshi hissed angrily towards Yoshi. "Those Yoshis are trapped with that... thing and you want to come back later!?"

"I want to save them as much as you do, but if we come back now, we'll never win," Yoshi retorted.

"The both of you need to calm down," Toadsworth quietly reprimanded. "Glitch is right there!"

But Boshi was having none of it. "No! This is between me and him!" The blue dinosaur turned to his rival. "As for you, the more time we waste, the more time our kind is stuck that freak!"

"If we go there now, we'll just join them," countered Yoshi, struggling to keep his anger down.

"Fine! I'll fight him by myself if I have to!" Boshi spat. He started toward the exit.

"Not if I can help it!" called Yoshi. He leapt out, tackling Boshi, and then attempted to pin him to the wall to stop him from doing that again... only to find that there was no wall.

" **Well, well, well,** " came Glitch's voice. The group looked up at it, and found that it held the wall above itself. " **Honestly, I'm impressed that you managed to keep your cool for so long.** " He eyed the squabbling Yoshis. " **I have but one question. How** _ **did**_ **you manage to discover me? You wouldn't happen to have a dimension-jumper with you, would you?** "

"And what if we did?" said Toad, unable to keep the fear out of his voice.

" **Nothing. I am merely curious. Anyway, I'd love to stay and chat, but I have plans to put into motion. So sit back and enjoy the show!** " With this, it began to levitate the eight heroes until they were level with it.

" **Now, I want you to watch** _ **very**_ **closely.** " It lifted its arms up and began to chant, " **Dnal si eht foyrots ihehtnom musi!** " Its hands soon became charged with the same green energy as the portal, and eventually it was surrounded by a hazy green aura.

Abruptly, a string of numbers shot out of the portal. Upon closer inspection, Mario noticed that all of them were either ones or zeroes. And they just kept coming – soon they extended their reach to halfway across the palace. Finally, the last of the chain came out, but it was expanding at an alarming rate.

" **The strands of time – like libraries of our history. But in libraries, books can be checked out – stolen, even... such is the case with these strands.** "

Mario gasped as he realized what was happening. "You wouldn't," he snarled.

" **Oh, but I would! You see, there is one key difference between libraries and time-strands: if you take away one book, it's no big deal. If you take away a single moment in time; if nothing happens in that brief second... well, you're about to find out.** " With that, it picked up a single zero that was shining brighter than the rest. " **Each of these numbers represents a moment; an instance in time. This one in particular... it is the turning point of a new age... my defeat.** " It ran what could've been its fingers along the chain, getting farther and farther away from the glowing zero. " **To directly destroy such a pivotal moment in history... why, it would be unfathomable! It might even rip apart the fabric of existence!** " It stopped on an insignificant little one. " **Fortunately, I'm smarter than that.** "

It shattered the digit, and abruptly the now-separate string stopped growing. Its color slowly faded away until it was a dull gray, and all of its luster began to diminish. Even the zero representing a new era faded into the same dreary color, until it was indistinguishable from the rest. Finally, the numbers disintegrated, and soon there was nothing left.

The effects were immediate. The Palace slowly yet surely began to demolish itself; its walls fading into nonexistence. Outside, they could hear trees growing, being cut down, growing again; eventually, the roots cracked through the floor, which had begun to implode. By far the worst part was the black void that was sprouting from the tip of the strand at an alarming rate.

" **Do you see this emptiness before you?** " Glitch said. " **That is time, restarting from where it thinks it left off. Yoshi's Island will be fine, but you...** " It eyed Mario, along with the rest of his party, with minor amusement in its eyes. " **...you will be deleted from reality. Which is something that I, quite frankly, would love to see, but... I have a crown to find.** " On that note, Glitch, along with his collection of Yoshis, disappeared.

At that same time, the eight felt the strain on them lessen and instantly dropped to the ground. "We need to get out of here!" cried Mario. And they did.

They fled from the abyss that would be their downfall; sprinting through the long corridor as the Palace crumbled. Twice, a pillar came crashing down in front of them; it was by sheer luck alone that they escaped in time. The third time, they were not so fortunate. They were so close to the exit; when _bang_! Another pillar nearly toppled onto the three Toads. Mario had pushed them out of the way, but his leg ended up pinned underneath the pillar. A collective gasp was let out as the group crowded around their trapped friend.

"Bro!" Luigi cried in despair.

Peach merely chanted the same words over and over again: "It'll be alright, the pillar will be gone; it'll be alright..." But it would not be alright, for although the pillar would soon be gone, it was clear from Mario's pained hissing that his leg had not been unharmed.

"Guys!" Yoshi exclaimed. "I can just carry him!"

"No!" wailed Peach, her voice cracking. "That pillar is fading too slowly, and he'd slow you down and you'd both be consumed!"

"You need to go on without me, guys!" Mario pleaded. "You're wasting too much time!"

"I won't leave without you, bro!" wept Luigi, tears streaming down his face.

"You _have_ to!" his brother insisted. "Luigi... I..." His voice cracked, and he suppressed a sob. "Get the others to safety."

By now, the pillar was gone, and the void was almost upon them. Mario remained sprawled on the ground, for his leg was virtually useless. "Go!" he cried. He looked deep into his brother's eyes. "For me."

The agony on Luigi's face was evident, but he nodded. He retreated from the Palace, the others in close pursuit. Looking back, the last thing he saw was his brother, the savior of the Mushroom Kingdom, swallowed by the darkness.

* * *

 **A/N: ...Well, that was depressing. But you mustn't leave now, my friends! The party's only just begun!***

 ***That can refer to the story or the amount of tears characters will shed. Familial tragedy is fun! (I'm looking at you, Koopalings... *hint hint*) Oh, yeah, that's also subtle-talk for "leave a review, and be sure to follow/favorite!"**

 **Also, try and decipher what Glitch said!**

 **~I Am A Toad**


	6. Crash Landing

**Thanks to yambaoski for following/favoriting!**

 **DISCLAIMER: I do not own Mario. *insert obligatory joke here***

* * *

 _Chapter VI: Crash Landing_

The man in green wiped the tears from his eyes as he saw his brother, the savior of the Mushroom Kingdom, swallowed by the darkness. _That was it,_ he realized as he led the others to safety. _He's never coming back._ Under normal circumstances, this would have caused Luigi, never the strongest soul, to lie there, sobbing for hours, but that was not the case. Mario's parting words had been to lead the others to safety, and he was determined to fulfill his brother's last wish. Besides, he was _not_ going to let his friends die if he could help it.

"Which way?" Luigi found himself asking as they stumbled out of the forest that had conveniently grown in the place of that accursed mountain.

"Let's g-go b-back to the h-hotel," offered Peach, tears streaming down her face. Unlike the plumber, she made no attempt to hide her grief, which was odd, considering she was normally more in control of her emotions than him. "M-my jet is there... We c-can fly it out of h-here..."

Luigi nodded. "Come on, everyone. We h-have to hurry," he told them, unable to keep the sorrow out of his voice this time.

They made their way to the plane without any further incident, and the beach stayed relatively untouched. That is, until they got to where the hotel should have been. "Where's my plane?!" Peach shrieked.

Luigi had absolutely no idea. Although he had long expected the hotel to be gone and had prepared accordingly, he could not have foreseen the jet disappearing as well. He had assumed that it was just a part of a different time-strand, and therefore would not be destroyed. After all, he and all the others weren't turning into dust! (He decided to ignore the fact that Yoshi and Boshi would both be dead with that reasoning.)

His train of thought was interrupted by Toad. "Hey, is it just me or is the sand rising?" he inquired, looking down.

It wasn't just him. Slowly but surely, the sand was converging around their feet, burying their ankles and filling their shoes. A quick look around the shore revealed that the same was happening elsewhere. It was then that it hit him. "That's it!" he cried, relief washing over him. "Everyone dig!"

Luckily for them, Luigi's unspoken suspicions proved right. Soon, the top of the plane was visible. Unfortunately for them, the black wall of nothingness was almost upon them. "Dig faster!" he hollered, his hands furiously shoveling the powdery substance.

At long last, they reached a point where they could open the pink door of the jetliner without too much difficulty. And just in time, too, for the void was a few yards away from them, at best. Luigi suspected they had a minute at most to make their escape. With a grunt they pulled open the door and piled in. Hurriedly, Luigi closed the door once more.

 _Five feet away._

Peach bolted into the cockpit, and hastily started the engine.

 _Four feet._

She entered the coordinates for the closest airport: Delfino Airstrip.

 _Two feet._

With no time to waste, she started autopilot.

 _One foot._

The plane shuddered for a horrifying instance, and then came to life. It plowed through the dune, skimmed the ocean's crystal-blue water, and was airborne. At long last, Luigi allowed himself to release a breath he didn't know he was holding. They had escaped the island, and were one step closer to beating Glitch... he hoped. Nonetheless, he allowed himself to get comfortable on his seat and found that he was so, so tired...

* * *

In his dream, Mario was alive. His brother was standing in a dark, overgrown jungle, looking utterly lost and confused. He tried to call out to him, but no words would come. Suddenly the image shifted.

He was standing with the same people as on the plane, but there were newcomers, as well. He vaguely recognized them from... somewhere. They stood in front of a giant, monochrome tree. Facing them was a being he remembered as the Shadow Queen, but something was off. She seemed less solid; her form less defined, as if she wasn't really there...

The image abruptly swirled once more, but it began to rotate faster and faster until Luigi could barely catch a glimpse of each picture. What he did see was unclear, such as...

 _...Eight figures fleeing from a dark, menacing fortress. High-pitched chortles echoed behind them._

 _...Professor E. Gadd, floating in an endless abyss._

 _...A figure he recognized as the Koopa King himself in shackles, being led through dark halls that smelled of despair._

 _...A jester with a perpetual grin on his mouth picking up a sharp, golden object._

Suddenly, the images stopped, and he heard a voice in his head. _What you see here is not some strange combination of thoughts pieced together by your weary mind. These are all real. Some are happening as we speak; others have yet to pass. I..._ the voice was replaced with the sound of static. _...longer. The time has come for you to awaken, my chosen one. For now..._ More static became audible. _...advice. In order to..._ The sound of static filled his mind once more. _...always follow your heart._ Silence.

* * *

The green plumber awoke to the sound of beeping, screaming, and very unladylike language. (The latter came from Peach.) "What's going on?!" Luigi shouted, struggling to be heard amidst the ruckus.

"We're out of fuel!" answered Yoshi. "We're barely managing to stay aloft!"

"Well, is there anywhere to land!?"

"Listen to Peach, and if you can't figure it out, I'll get back to you on that!"

It was Luigi's turn to utter a string of curses. After he was done with that, he made his way to the cockpit, where he found Peach frantically flipping switches and pulling levers. "Peach!" he called. "Try to get the plane as low as possible!"

The Mushroom Princess looked at him like he was crazy, then nodded and got to work. Suddenly, the entire plane lurched and Luigi found himself thrown to the ceiling. Behind him, he heard whoops of excitement (Boshi) and terrified screams (everyone else).

"I can't bring it any lower!" she cried. "The plane's hard enough to control as it is!"

Luigi looked at the radar, and to his relief saw a small island northwest of where they were. At their current speed, however, they would bypass it within fifteen seconds, at the most. "Aim for that island!" He pointed to the landmass, which was rapidly approaching.

"Got it!" She swerved to the left and took the plane into a dive, eliciting more of the same reactions from everyone. However, not too far into their descent, the plane faltered and went dark. "No fuel!" she screamed.

"Wait! I have an idea!" proclaimed Luigi. Like Mario, he also kept a Fire Flower in his hat, and like Mario, he pulled it out and allowed its scorching power to enter his body. He felt the familiar tingling in his fingertips as he made his way to the fuel tank. He quickly opened it, and shot two fireballs into it in rapid succession. He closed it once more, praying to the Star Spirits his plan would work.

It did. The lights flickered to life, albeit weakly, and he heard Peach shout in triumph: "Yes!"

But not everything was okay. Luigi noted with dismay that they were going way to fast to stop their descent, which left... "The river!" he yelled. "Aim for the river!"

Peach immediately understood. She used the remaining fuel to push the plane into a collision course with the rapids. The lights dimmed once more, and a mighty _BOOM!_ shook Luigi's bones. Water came gushing in, and Luigi found himself slipping into the welcoming arms of unconsciousness once more.

* * *

"Ugh..."

"He's waking up!"

"Uh... my head..." Luigi opened his eyes, then decided that the light was too bright and closed them again.

"No, no, no! Don't go back to sleep _again_!"

Luigi grumbled, then slowly sat up. The first thing he registered was how stiff his body was. "Ow..." he complained. The second thing he registered was that he wasn't a pancake at the bottom of the river. "Where am I?" he asked the two figures standing above him. The third thing he registered was that his vision was blurry and he could barely see the aforementioned figures.

"You're in Petalburg, silly!" said the first figure, who seemed to be female.

"Um... I don't think he knows where that is...?" whispered the other, who obviously noticed Luigi's blank expression.

"Oh, my bad! Tee hee!" she giggled. "Petalburg is the most peaceful village on the entire island! Anyways, I'm Koopie Koo, and this is my _amazing_ boyfriend, Koops!"

At last, Luigi's sight cleared and he was finally able to see the figures. Koopie Koo, as she called herself, had a green shell and white shoes. She also had blonde hair, which was unusual for Koopas, with a pink headband pulling it back into a ponytail. She also looked at the other figure, Koops, like he was perfection itself... which he was not. He was unusually pale, and had a bandage on his snout. He wore a sky-blue polo shirt over his plastron, and like his girlfriend, had white shoes. At the latter, he felt a flicker of recognition within him.

"Uh... should I know you?" he asked Koops.

"Well, probably not if you're not from here," Koops replied. "I helped Mario on his adventures in Rogueport. You sure look awfully similar to him."

So _that_ was where he knew him from! He had caught a glimpse of him with Mario occasionally when he stopped at Rogueport to travel to new locations in the Waffle Kingdom. "Um... yeah. I'm his brother." replied Luigi. "But, listen. You need to hear something. Are the others okay?"

"Uh-huh. They're all awake. You probably took the brunt of the damage. Do you want to go see them?"

"Sure!"

He was about to get up, but Koopie Koo immediately pushed him back down. "Koops, he can't go out yet! He's barely woken up! Just bring the others here!" Her boyfriend opened his mouth to reply, but before he could, she added, "No wait. I'll go. I don't want you to fall into the river!"

Luigi thought she meant it as a joke, but she said it with absolute seriousness.

A few minutes later, Koopie Koo came back, with Luigi's friends (and Boshi) following her. "Oh, Master Luigi!" Toadsworth cried. "Thank heavens you're awake!" True to Koops's word, they all looked relatively unscathed. A few of them had long bandages on their arms and legs (especially Boshi), but none looked as bad as the green plumber himself.

"So... Luigi said he wanted to tell us something...?" Koops awkwardly said in an attempt to break the ice.

Their expressions instantaneously darkened. "Yeah..." Toad started. "You might want to sit down for this."

They told them everything. Afterwards, the two Koopas had their jaws lower than Luigi would have thought possible. Finally, after a long silence, Koops spoke. "Maybe... maybe we should go see Goombella about this. She probably knows more about that Glitch character and the Crown that he mentioned."

"Okay, that sounds like a good idea!" exclaimed Peach, immediately perking up. "When can we leave?"

"Right now, if you want," Koops replied. "If that's the case, I'd better tell my dad, though."

"Well, I'm going, too!" announced Koopie Koo. "I am not letting you go into that garbage dump of a city on your own, even if you have other people with you!"

Koops seemed to have a silent argument with his girlfriend, but eventually lowered his head. "Well... okay, then," he relented.

"That's better!" She gave him a peck on the cheek. "I'll even tell your dad!"

Koops blushed. "Gee, thanks!" he called as the female Koopa ran out the door. "So... let's get going, then..." he muttered.

He led them to the blue pipe that he used for quick access to Rogueport. "Just breathe through your mouth, and you'll be fine," he instructed before jumping into the pipe.

"Why?" Toadette wondered aloud.

"Oh, because that pipe leads to the sewers," came Koopie Koo's voice from behind them. "Koops is lucky. That bandage that covers his nose blocks out the smell. Anyways, are you coming?" She, too, disappeared into the pipe.

Luigi, Yoshi, and Boshi shrugged before doing the same, leaving the three Toads and Peach.

"Ladies first," Toad insisted. His sister stuck her tongue at him, before jumping into the pipe, Toad following closely behind.

"Well, what the heck!" Peach decided. She dove into the pipe as well.

That left Toadsworth. "I am going to thoroughly regret this later, aren't I," he murmured. As carefully as an old Toad with arthritis could, he slid into the pipe.

"Aah!" screamed Koops as he was launched out of the pipe and onto his face. "I... hate... Warp Pipes!"

Just then, his girlfriend popped out, landing gracefully on her feet. She wrinkled her nose. "Ick! This sewer smells even worse than Rogueport! How is that even possible?!"

Koops was going to respond, but he was interrupted by the sound of joyful whooping. A blue Yoshi stumbled out, followed by the green Yoshi and Luigi. "That... was... awesome!" the blue one (Boshi?) exclaimed.

Luigi merely shrugged, and commented, "This sewer isn't nearly as bad as you made it out to be, Koops." Noticing the Koopa's incredulous expression, he added, "I _am_ a plumber, y'know."

Suddenly, Toadette was launched out by the pipe. She grinned, and began to ramble, "That was so much fun! I haven't been in that many Warp Pipes and when I have they're really short so this was such a new experience for me and I can't believe that they would build a Warp Pipe in a sewer and where does that other Warp Pipe lead and why are there doors in a sewer and-"

Abruptly, her brother shot out and immediately tackled her.

"Eek! Toad, get off me! I swear to the Stars, I will feed you to the Nibbles and leave you to drown!"

This comment made everyone stare at the Toads, especially Peach, who had unfortunately arrived just in time to hear that comment. Equally unfortunately, the siblings didn't notice and eventually rolled off of the raised platform on which the pipe situated, with Toadette making death threats all the way down.

"I'm sure they'll be fine!" Koopie Koo said brightly.

Finally, Toadsworth climbed out of the pipe. "Never again," he wheezed.

"Okay, I'm pretty sure that's everyone," Peach declared. "Lead the way, Koops!"

He did his job horribly. Twice he fell into the water running through the sewer, and he led them to several dead ends. On one occasion he even brought them into the Palace of Shadow. So it was to the great joy of everyone when he finally found the pipe leading to the East Side of Rogueport.

"Finally!" said everyone at once. They proceeded to push Koops out of the way, run as far away from the pipe as possible, and somewhere along the line realized that they had no idea where they were supposed to go. Reluctantly, they returned to him.

"So..." Peach said, "where exactly are we supposed to go...?"

Koops sighed and merely pointed in the direction of the nearest house. He then walked towards it and knocked on the door, the others close behind him. Those closest to the door bore witness to a rather interesting argument.

"Goombella, don't open the door!"

"Why not?"

"It's probably the Robbo Gang asking for protection money again! Now get back inside!"

"Professor, if it was the Robbos, then they would have broken the door down by now."

"I still don't buy it."

Koops, becoming impatient, decided to take matters into his own hands. "Goombella, it's me! Koops!" Koopie Koo whispered something in his ear. "I have the princess and Mario's brother with me! There's also a bunch of Toads and two Yoshis! Oh, yeah, and my girlfriend! So could you _please_ let us in!?"

At long last, the door opened. "Oh, hi, Koops, Koopie Koo!" Goombella greeted cheerfully. "So... what were you saying about..." She glanced behind him. "Omigosh! You really _do_ have the princess and... all those other people with you! Come on in!"

Just then, Professor Frankly came into view behind his student. "Goombella! What's all this about having a..." Like Goombella, his jaw dropped as he saw their company. "Your Majesty! Please forgive our rudeness! Do come in!" He ushered them into the living space hidden behind his numerous books.

"So, uh... what brings you to Rogueport, Your Highness?" said Goombella awkwardly.

Initially, Peach smiled. "Just Peach will suffice. But... I'm afraid we are here for a number of reasons, none of them good. Koops here thought that it would be a good idea to talk to you two about it."

"Okay..." Goombella stated. "What do you want to talk about? And, come to think of it, where's Mario?"

Toad repeated his earlier advice. "You should probably sit down for this."

After the tale, the two archeologists looked at each other with worried looks in their eyes. At last, Frankly spoke. "This news is... deeply unsettling. Deleting history... that's unheard of in the scientific world, but if what you say is true..." He paused. "You said that this was done by a being called Glitch?"

Luigi nodded.

"I think... I think I may know what this thing is. As Goombella here knows, finding accounts of events from even one thousand years ago is near-impossible... but I have one book that is over nine times that age. And... it speaks of a creature called Glitch."

"I think it's your turn to sit down," he told them all as he began to read from the volume. "It took me awhile to translate it, but it goes something like this: The ground..."

* * *

 _The ground shakes and the sky flashes with light. The fortress of the beast that calls itself ruler of the world is briefly illuminated. The frightened villagers, forced to do the will of the beast or else suffer a fate worse than death, can briefly see four figures ascending the stairs to the throne room of the beast Glitch. The beast that stole the Crown of Time all those years ago. The Crown that can make sure you die prematurely or never existed in the first place._

 _Except for the Four. No-one knows why, but they are immune to Glitch – to the Crown – to Time itself. Individually, they can withstand Time, but together, they can combat even the most powerful evils. The Four are said to be the reincarnated forms of the virtues of the heavens – Will, Mind, Force, and Heart – that is why, the legends say, they are immune._

 _The Four enter the door of the throne room, and a battle ensues. It is terrible of a sight to see. The entire mountain is leveled, and the villagers can feel the blast from miles away. The Heroes emerge victorious – but only just._

 _To ensure nothing like this never happens again, they banish Glitch to a realm where it will suffer for eternity, and split the Crown into seven shards. They spread the shards across the land and leave them there to rot._

 _The Four go their separate ways, and peace reigns. But they all warn of one thing: one day, Glitch will return. They all say one thing: tell their descendants to be prepared._

* * *

"...be prepared," Frankly finished.

"So... you're saying that the Heroes – which, let me remind you, are me, Luigi, Mario, and Bowser," Peach remarked, "are actually the reincarnations of different virtues. And you're getting all of this from a book that's ninety centuries old and translated from another language."

"Actually, I believe him," Luigi voiced. "While we were on the plane, I had a dream. In the dream, I had a bunch of visions, and one of them showed that Mario is _alive_. And then, I heard a voice, and it told me that all of the visions I saw were true, and that they weren't hallucinations. It called me its chosen one, and said to always follow my heart. What if it's all true? What if I'm Heart? What if Mario is _alive_?"

"That's oddly specific," Peach grumbled. "And how do you know that that dream voice was even real?"

"I have to believe that it's real," he insisted. "It's my only hope that Mario is alive. That voice told me to follow my heart, and that's what I'm doing. If nobody wants to help me, then I don't care. All I want is to find my brother. And if it means relying on a poorly-translated millennia-old book, then so be it."

"Well, count me in!" Goombella exclaimed. "The chance to defeat a creature from 10,000 years ago is too much to pass up!"

"I'll go, too," proclaimed Yoshi. "That thing destroyed my home. I'll do whatever it takes to get it back."

"What he said!" declared Boshi.

"Count us in, too!" cried Toadette. "I wanna get to know everyone better!"

"And besides," Toad added with a small smile, "We've been through so much already."

"I-I'll go, too!" announced Koops timidly.

"Oh, no you don't!" Koopie Koo exclaimed. "I'm not letting you go on another pointless quest to prove your bravery... unless you let me go with you." She smiled sweetly.

"I'll go wherever the Princess goes," asserted Toadsworth.

Everyone looked at Peach expectantly. "Fine," she muttered.

"Wait... I just thought of this. Where exactly are we going?" Goombella inquired confusedly.

"Well, first, we're going to go to Bowser's Castle, and tell him to get his lazy butt over here so he can save the world from total annihilation," answered Luigi.

"And also... why did Glitch revert the island to its form 10,000 years ago?" That was Koops.

Luigi didn't have a response to this, but Goombella did. "Omigosh! Maybe it's because the Crown rotted like the Four Heroes intended! So, he needs to go back in time to get it!" She seemed satisfied with her explanation.

Unfortunately, it made perfect sense. "Well, we should at least try to get rid of Glitch," Luigi suggested. "Anyone have any ideas?"

"Aha!" exclaimed Professor Frankly triumphantly. "There's a sentence here that, when translated, reads, 'the beast was neutralized with objects of power, but recovered and deleted the objects' wielders.' If you get those objects, you could be able to kill Glitch."

"So... anyone have any ideas for objects of power?" Peach asked with a trace of sarcasm.

"Actually, yes!" said Goombella and Koops simultaneously. After a lot of confusion and interruption, the two of them finally managed to formulate a discernible paragraph: "After our quest with Mario, we decided to split up the Crystal Stars – one to each partner. So, if we round up the rest of Mario's old partners, we can get rid of Glitch with the Stars." Koops then held up the Diamond Star, as did Goombella with the Crystal Star.

"Excellent!" Luigi declared, glad that they were back in business. "What are we waiting for!? Let's a-go!"

* * *

 **A/N: And... cut. This is by far the longest chapter, and I think I could've done better handling introducing Koops and Koopie Koo, but overall, I'm happy. So... Mario might still be alive, and everyone else is going to travel around Rogueport to find Mario's partners from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. (How could I** _ **not**_ **include my favorite Paper Mario game and/or Rogueport!?) Anyways, lots of foreshadowing in this chapter! See if you can figure any of it out! Also, in response to** _ **Avalain Nightshade's**_ **guess as to what Glitch said, you're so close! Look** _ **very**_ **closely.**

 **~I Am A Toad**


	7. The First Shard

**Thanks to Shadow of the Dragons for following/favoriting!**

 **DISCLAIMER: [dis-KLEY-mer] _noun_ ; a statement, document, or assertion that disclaims responsibility, affiliation, etc.; disavowal; denial (For instance, I do not own Mario.)**

* * *

 _Chapter VII: The First Shard_

Mario was pretty sure he wasn't supposed to exist anymore. After all, he had been swallowed by a time-consuming void. He knew he wasn't in the afterlife (Mario had personal experience with _that_ ), but he was also still conscious, which meant he couldn't have been completely wiped from reality. (Mario had personal experience with _that,_ too, albeit as an observer.) So where in the name of Grambi's beard was he?!

"Okay, calm down, Mario," he breathed. "Take a look at your surroundings, and try to figure out where the heck you are." He took his own advice, and gazed around him. From what he could see, he was in a clearing in the middle of a dim jungle; an island in a sea of trees.

 _Well, that's just wonderful,_ Mario thought. He had bad memories of spooky forests such as this one, and he was in no rush to relive them.

Suddenly, an idea popped into his head. "What what happen if I..." he wondered aloud. Apparently, in all of his freaking out, he hadn't even bothered to stand. And it was a good thing, too, for when he attempted to rise, a bolt of pain (which had been curiously absent before) shot through his leg.

"Ow!" shrieked the plumber as he crumbled to the ground. After the pain more-or-less subsided, he lifted himself into a sitting position, careful not to put pressure onto his injured appendage. "Okay," he muttered through gritted teeth, "let's try this again..."

This time, instead of trying to stand, he cautiously lowered himself until he was poised to crawl. Then, it was just a matter of figuring out how to crawl with one leg dragging uselessly behind him, but eventually, an hour and a lot of pain later, he was ready to take on the dangers of the jungle... as best as a man who could only stand at half of his normal height could.

The trip was tedious and boring until he found the mushrooms. They had been quite a welcome surprise. Mario had been crawling along, hungry and tired, when he had discovered them, growing on a nearby tree trunk. In the Mushroom Kingdom, the fungi were usually grown in environments where they could grow to their fullest, like the insides of blocks. Never were they found in the wild. But then again, Mario supposed that this creepy thicket was just as optimal as any floating yellow block.

That raised the question, however: what kind of mushrooms were they? They weren't red like common varieties, nor were they blue like Super Shrooms. They lacked the distinctive lime-green coloration of Ultra Shrooms, Mid Mushrooms, and 1-Ups, as well as the easily-recognizable yellow of the Max Mushroom. Unlike Poison Mushrooms and Zombie Shrooms, they were not purple, nor did they possess the eerie white of Ghoul Shrooms. They didn't have the Slow Shroom's pink hue, nor did it have the Life Shroom's hearts or the Volt Shroom's lightning bolts. No, instead of all of those, they were a rich, chocolate-brown.

Internally, the red plumber fiercely debated on whether or not he should eat them. On the one hand, most mushrooms were quite helpful and healed you. Besides, most evil mushrooms usually made their presence known by trying to kill whoever had the misfortune to stumble across it. On the other hand, there was still the chance that it would try to murder him. Plus, it could do something completely unhelpful like make him tiny, or summon a bolt of lightning. In the end, Mario came to a resolution. "Eh, what do I have to lose?"

He made the right choice. Immediately after digesting the mystery mushroom, the man in red felt the pain in his leg lessen tremendously. Now, while he was on the ground he could barely detect the hurt, which was a huge improvement. Even standing up was bearable now, even though a dull stab of pain shot through him every time he took a step.

To help with this problem, Mario fashioned himself a pair of crutches out of branches from the nearby trees. That is to say, he took sturdy branches from nearby trees and used them as crutches. In addition, he grabbed the rest of the mushrooms – just in case.

Now that he was actually traveling by foot instead of crawling on his stomach for six hours straight, Mario reached the edge of the jungle rather quickly. What he saw, however, was not, in any way, what he had expected. Beyond the woods lay about a quarter-mile of sand dunes, and beyond that... water. Water as far as the eye could see, which meant...

"I'm still on the island," Mario gasped. And that he was. Gazing back, he could see a gradual slope where Kappa Mountain would have been, as well as the towering forms of the nameless (and much colder) mountains in the middle of the island. The sea was still the same deep blue, albeit choppier and foamier. The grains that made up the shore had the same soft feel to it.

"What happened to it...?" he pondered. Right as he finished his musing, however, he knew instantly. Perhaps it was his instincts telling him, or maybe it was logic informing him that the mountains were lower than usual, therefore... "Glitch was telling the truth!" he realized.

It became blindingly obvious to him that this was, in fact, the case. Mario's inclination was to never believe anything that a villain told you – including what Glitch had said about the island. After all, why would you need to go back in time to take over the world? But the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. Perhaps Glitch was from another time – a time in which it had reigned supreme. That would explain why it had treated everyone like they were worthless trash. And then there were Glitch's parting words – something about finding a crown? It would make _loads_ more sense if it were trying to rule in a place where there was less opposition – after all, the island seemed pretty desolate.

His hypothesizing was brought to a halt as the sand erupted in front of him, revealing a colossal, sea-green worm, which screeched and instantaneously attempted to decapitate him.. The red-clad plumber groaned as he leapt into battle. _I just had to think that..._

* * *

Mario was getting annoyed. None of his attacks seemed to be working. He'd tried jumping on it (made difficult by his sore leg), punching it, kicking it, even stabbing it in one of its five eyes with his crutch. To make matters worse, it could _fly._ It would float around in the air and swoop down to bite his head off with its ginormous mouth. And if that wasn't bad enough, it could summon minions into battle. Minions that couldn't fly, thankfully, but could still bite his head off.

Needless to say, if this kept going on, Mario would soon tire and would become vulnerable. It was then that he had it. Eyes narrowed, he waited for the airborne invertebrate to descend. When it did, he rolled out of the way and jumped onto its back. He felt the wind whipping his face as he clung on. Eventually, the worm steadied and Mario found himself able to stand. He was reminded of a similar experience fighting a certain robotic dragon. _Who knows_ , he thought as he made his way toward the front of the beast, _maybe this'll end up being just as-_

The man in red was flung back with tremendous force. As he lifted himself back up, he could see five glowing blue eyes gazing at him. Except... they were detached from their sockets – being held aloft by pale-brown tentacles. Mario was revolted, but disgust soon turned to irritation as little pellets began to rapidly shoot from the ellipsoid.

"What?!" he exclaimed as he avoided the projectiles. "Eye-bullets?! That's _so_ unfair!" Miffed, he swiftly leapt onto one of the eyes, but to no avail. Even when out of their sockets, the eyes were still as hard as ever. But the tentacles...?

He skillfully wove through the shots, until he had reached one of the appendages. He put both of his hands on it, and yanked it as hard as he could. To his delight, it yielded. To his dismay, it did absolutely nothing other than anger the worm (Mario decided to call it the Invertebreye because he wasn't very good at naming things) and get him knocked off.

The fall itself wasn't so bad, but what followed afterward was. Mario felt a white-hot, searing pain in his arm, and realized that it was one of the little worms (Mario had opted to call them Invertebrites) sinking its teeth into his flesh. Suddenly, he had an epiphany. He yanked the Invertebrite out of his arm, and then quickly ate one of the brown mushrooms to heal the wound. He then waited for the larger worm to try to eat his face once more, then grabbed on, Invertebrite still in hand.

He made his way to the eyes, but instead of attacking them head on, he instead held out the worm in front of the limb supporting the oculus. The effect was immediate. The creature snapped its jaw around the tentacle like it wasn't even there, and soon the ellipsoid fell into the ocean with a _splash_.

The Invertebreye shrieked in pain and reeled, attempting to throw Mario off. However, this time, he was ready, and he latched himself onto it. When the beast realized this was not working, it began shooting more bullets out of its remaining eyeballs, all while rotating them in an erratic dance. This actually worked to Mario's advantage, as when he tossed his miniature worm, it ended up catching two eyes at once. With a _snap!_ the tentacles were severed, sailing along with the Invertebrite into the dunes below.

Not wanting to be knocked to the ground by the worm, Mario did the honors for it. When he landed, he immediately scoured the ground for an Invertebrite, which wasn't really all that difficult, as at this point the beach was teeming with them. He grabbed the nearest one, then, deciding that it would be too risky to stay on the ground with the bloodthirsty little worms, Triple Jumped back onto the Invertebreye.

When he got back up once again, he found that the eyes had a surprise waiting for him. Immediately after he found his footing, he found himself knocked backwards by something _very_ big. After he gained his bearings, he looked up to find both of the remaining eyes surrounded by an electric-blue aura. A strange, increasingly high-pitched noise seemed to be emanating from the eyes as well. He realized what was going on a second before it happened. He flattened himself against the worm's slimy hide, and he heard two distinct buzzing noises whiz overhead.

Mario got to his feet, and observed that the eyes seemed to be dizzy. Taking his chance, he flung the worm at them, and before they could dodge, the Invertebrite was upon them. Mario smirked with satisfaction as the remaining eyes hurtled into the jungle.

Suddenly, he felt the entire creature's body vibrate and shudder. The rumbling seemed mostly concentrated in its front, so Mario cautiously crawled forward for a closer look. What he saw shocked him. There, smack in the middle of the Invertebreye's mouth, was a giant eyeball. This one was completely white, with a yellow iris and a blood-red pupil.

"How am I supposed to..." Mario thought aloud. The answer then hit him. "Aww, come on!" He leaped off of the worm, landing on the ground with a _thud_. Strangely, all of the Invertebrites had vanished. This time, when the worm swooped down, instead of fleeing like he had before, he simply held his ground and allowed himself to be swallowed whole.

Now, Mario was no stranger to gross situations. Frankly, this entire battle counted as one, and he'd even gotten inhaled by Bowser multiple times. But this – this was a whole new level of pure _nastiness_. The inside of the worm's mouth was filled with a combination of saliva and slime, and its tongue was bouncy like a jump house at a child's birthday party. That wasn't even mentioning the giant eye, which was even more grotesque up close.

"Let's just get this over with..." Mario groaned. He then proceeded to kick the eye multiple times. Luckily, this eye seemed to actually feel Mario's attacks. Unluckily, because of this, it decided to start shooting Mario with a laser beam. A laser beam that detonated whatever it touched.

"Oh, _come on_!" the red plumber whined. "This is even worse than the eye-bullets!" He would've said more, but he had to avoid yet another onslaught of laser-induced explosions. To make matters worse, he couldn't even get close enough to hit the oculus – the beams made sure of that.

He noticed that strangely, the slime/saliva mixture seemed to take a few moments to blow up. Finally, he realized that this strange property could be the key to killing the eye. Thankful for his gloves, he picked up a handful of ooze and lobbed it at the monster. Sure enough, when the laser hit it, it didn't explode immediately. When it did explode, it hit the eyeball directly straight in the pupil. It let out an unearthly screech (how did it do that if it was just an eye?) and doubled its attempts to vaporize Mario.

Mario, however, was prepared. He held up a pile of glop like a shield, then, when the laser made contact with it, hurled it at the eyeball. Once more, the creature wailed in agony. However, after it was done doing that, instead of simply shooting a continuous beam once more, it began to rapidly fire shots in every direction. Soon, the mouth became filled with the sound of detonating slime.

Mario waited for it to shoot at him, but it never did. Instead, he now had to take care to evade the constant explosions caused by the rapidly-firing lasers. After going on like this for a good five minutes, he finally understood what he had to do.

Unfortunately, that was made much more difficult due to the fact that he could never stay still and pay attention to where the lasers were hitting. Whenever he tried to track an individual beam, he either would lose it due to having to avoid an explosion, or he would be blocked from getting to the spot it hit due to having to avoid an explosion. Basically, the explosions were messing him up.

Finally, Mario decided that it would be in his best interests to simply lob slime at the eye and hope for the best. ...It didn't work very well. Most of the ooze he threw hadn't even been hit by the beams in the first place, and those that had simply exploded in midair.

However, this strategy had one good side effect – Mario no longer had to avoid the blasts, for they weren't occurring near him anymore. As such, Mario actually noticed that a beam had conveniently shot right next to him. Taking his chance, he grabbed the saliva at the spot the laser had hit and chucked it at the eye. It landed right at the eyeball's base, and detonated.

This time, the Invertebreye itself opened its mouth to screech, and white light began pouring from the exploded oculus. Mario had fought enough bosses to know that that usually meant the enemy was about to be blown to bits, and took his chance to escape. He was not a moment too soon, for the moment he landed on the beach, the worm let out one final high-pitched roar, and was gone. All that remained of it was a sharp, golden object that had floated down in front of the plumber.

Now, Mario had gone on enough adventures to know that whenever an expensive-looking object drops from a bad guy, he should probably pick it up. However, as soon as he touched it, his vision went black.

* * *

In his vision, Luigi was dying. He was floating in a river among a smoldering wreckage. He tried to grab him; tried to hoist him out and tell him it would be okay, but he couldn't move his muscles, he couldn't save him... Suddenly the image shifted.

This time, he was not alone. He was standing alongside the Koopa King himself in a dark fortress. A figure whom he recognized as Fawful emerged from the shadows, but something was off. He seemed less solid; his form less defined, as if he wasn't really there...

The image suddenly became fuzzy, and began swirling faster and faster until Mario could barely catch a snippet of each one. What he did see was unclear, such as...

 _...Three minuscule figures huddled together underneath a bush._

 _...A pink, pig-like creature emerging from a dark, stormy sky._

 _...An army of flying saucers assaulting a fleeing comet. A smaller starship trailed behind it._

 _...Seven pixies, each of a different color, constructing a massive wall around a bright fortress._

Abruptly, the images stopped, and Mario could hear a voice in his head. _What I have shown you is not a collection of thoughts strung together by your tired mind. No, it is not that. Rather, they are true events that_ are _happening – now or in the future. I have taken the liberty to come to you in your current state to offer some advice. The artifact that you have picked up can help you in your quest – or it can destroy you. With it, you can surf the tide or drown in the flood. The question is: will your mind prevail as it has before? Or will it be consumed by power?_ As quickly as it had begun, the voice ended.

* * *

From its vantage point in its own dimension outside space and time (even before it had gotten the Crown of Time, it had been skilled in the dimensional arts), Glitch was livid. For one thing, it had no idea how that wretched worm had gotten the shard in the first place. Not to mention, one of the people it had left for dead had been a Hero! And not just _a_ Hero, but the _leader_ of the Heroes, who now was in possession of the first shard! What were the odds?!

And then there were the others, who just happened to find a way off of the island and were now gathering objects of power to enter its Areas of Reversion! (There were a lot more of those than in its time, Glitch noted.)

This, it decided, would not do at all. It couldn't risk anymore Heroes finding the shards, and if it went to each individual Center of Distortion, who knew how many objects of power they would be able to collect. What it needed, it decided, were beings who would not only serve it without hesitation, but also knew that blasted group on a personal level.

And so it began its search throughout that group's history to find people they may have encountered, and preferably defeated. In the end, he found six individuals who would do nicely – the first one being an entity of pure shadow who had possessed one of the Heroes, who happened to be in the group that escaped.

The second was what appeared to be a living vegetable who not only hated three of the Heroes, one of whom happened to be in that group as well, but also appeared to have an a minion of his own. Glitch decided to resurrect both of them.

The third one was a sentient artifact of pure darkness fittingly named the Dark Star. It was able to absorb DNA, and had apparently been destroyed along with the second villain when they had merged.

The fourth was some sort of humanoid bat who, at one point, could open portals to the world of dreams. Glitch made a mental note to have him retain that ability. He had apparently been betrayed by one of the Heroes, which made him perfect for this job.

The fifth Glitch was a little worried about. He was some sort of jester, who was advanced in dimensional and magical arts. What was troubling was that other than his betrayal of his master and his defeat at the hands of three of the Heroes (he had merged with the other one) Glitch could not find any information regarding his past. He would make a valuable ally – but a formidable enemy.

The final one was the ruler of a race of alien mushrooms. This was the main reason Glitch had chosen her, for she would do anything for her people. Not only that, but her people happened to own weapons of mass destruction.

With its choices in mind, Glitch concentrated and allowed its connection with the Time Realm to take over. It eventually found the strands it was looking for and edited them so that the villains would appear in its dimension right about... With a _poof!_ the bad guys were before it. And boy, were they talkative.

"Where is Fawful?" asked one of them.

"Muh huh huh! I could ask the same thing myself! And who are these... creatures who stand before me?" said another one in response.

The alien princess simply babbled something in her incomprehensible dialect.

"My, what a poorly made dimension, like the rushed project of a high-schooler with a failing grade!" That was the magician.

Glitch groaned. " **All of you,** _ **do be quiet!**_ " Thankfully, the six beings listened to it. " **As you may or may not know, I have just brought you back from the dead! And I have the power to send you back there! But... I have brought you here for one reason: to destroy the Heroes.** " That earned him five confused villains and one suddenly-interested jester.

" **You all seriously don't know who the Heroes are? They are the ones that killed you in the first place!** "

"Ooh..." chorused four of the formerly-confused villains. (The Dark Star couldn't talk.)

" **I have summoned you to offer you a chance to not only destroy those you hate, but to hit them where it hurts – to destroy their family, friends, and homes.** **All I ask is that you serve me.** "

"SCREEEK! And vhy vould ve do that?" questioned the bat.

" **Because I can give you more power than you will have thought possible. Also,** " it added as an afterthought, " **if you don't, back to the Underwhere for you!** "

His offer was then met with several overly-enthusiastic responses. Well, except for the jester. He just floated there, never changing his demeanor, even when Glitch granted him its power.

" **Now, I have one very simple plan for you all. With the power I have gifted you with comes the ability to sense Centers of Distortion. You will each go to one and summon the time-strand for the area you are in. You will find the most recent turning point of history and you will destroy it. Then, once that area is Reverted, you will find one of the shards of the Crown of Time and bring it to me. Got it?** " The villains nodded. " **Well, what are you waiting for?** "

As its new minions exited, Glitch couldn't help but evilly laugh, even if it _was_ super clichéd. Finally, its plans were coming to fruition, and no one, especially not those pesky Heroes, would stop it.

* * *

 **A/N: Well, I have now officially experienced the utter agony that is writing a fight scene. As for the boss's appearance, think of Molgera from The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, but green. Mario's method of battling the behemoth was inspired by Fracktail from Super Paper Mario. Also, I'm not sure about that scene with Glitch. I feel like it could've been better. Oh yeah, and if you can't figure out who most of the villains are, you should probably go play the Mario RPGs. On the plus side, more Paper Mario: TTYD next chapter!**

 **~I Am A Toad**


	8. Recruiting the Partners

**I am _so_ sorry that this chapter took so long! It's just... my family went on two vacations in a row, then I got my hands on Kirby: Triple Deluxe. 'Nuff said.**

 **Thanks to Gguy12345 for following/favoriting!**

 **DISCLAIMER: If I owned Mario, I would've applied the Pokémon formula to it by now. (It worked for Zelda, so why not Mario?)**

* * *

 _Chapter VIII: Recruiting the Partners_

"So, where to first?" Yoshi inquired as they stepped out of Frankly's house.

"Well, we need to find five people," Goombella responded. "Flurrie's probably somewhere in the Great Tree, or else she's auditioning for some random movie, so we should get her last. Gonzales Jr. is still fighting in the Glitz Pit, last time I checked. Vivian's still living with her sisters in Twilight Town. Bobbery's gonna be hard, because he's normally at sea, so I'd split up for him – check both the docks and Keelhaul Key. Ms. Mowz is probably still checking for treasure in the Palace of Shadow, but there's a tiny chance we might catch her in her badge shop."

"That sounds like a lot of places. Maybe we could go in groups and search for all of them at once?" Luigi suggested.

"That's a good idea," Koops said. "We could get everyone together faster that way."

"Well, if we're splittin' up, I wanna go check out this Glitz Pit thing. It sounds like my kind of place," piped up Boshi.

Yoshi groaned. "I'd better go with him to keep him in check."

"I'll go too," Goombella offered. "I know the manager, and she wouldn't refuse me access. Plus, I have a Blimp Ticket."

"I could possibly check for Ms. Mowz," proposed Toadsworth. "I know my way around this town, so I remember where the badge shop is."

"I'm going with you," Peach told him. "I memorized the way I went when Grodus took me to the Palace of Shadow, so you'll need me just in case."

"I can take someone with me to Keelhaul Key," offered Koops shyly.

"I'll go!" said Toad excitedly. "From what I've heard, there used to be pirates on that island! And pirates mean treasure!"

"And this time, you can actually jump," teased his sister. "Anyways, I wanna go to the Great Tree! I've been there before and it was pretty and it was even bigger than the Super Happy Tree and even though it doesn't make people happy it still is home to a bunch of adorable little bugs and there's a bunch of pipes made of wood and that's-"

"I can wait for Bobbery by the docks," interrupted Koopie Koo.

"Then I guess t-that leaves me to go to T-Twilight Town," Luigi muttered shakily.

"Okay then!" Goombella exclaimed. "Let me just tell you guys how to get to your locations, and we're good!" She did this, and soon they were off.

* * *

"So, tell me about this 'Glitz Pit,'" said Boshi as they flew towards Glitzville.

"Well, the Glitz Pit is like, this, fighting arena. There's twenty-one fighting teams in total – ten in the minor league, ten in the major league and one champion. If you win a fight against someone with a higher rank than you, your rank goes up. If you lose, then you fight someone with a lower rank. If you lose again, your rank goes down."

A wide grin was etched across the blue Yoshi's face. "How have I not heard of this before?!"

Yoshi rolled his eyes. "Well, you've never left the island. Of _course_ you haven't heard of it."

Ignoring these comments, Goombella continued, "When we were looking for the Gold Star, we had to enlist in the Pit because we thought it was on the champion's belt. But then, it turned out that it was a fake and that the manager was using the real Star to power a machine that drained the power from other fighters to power himself up. He turned into this giant hulking monster, and we killed him. And then, it turned out that his assistant was just looking for her brother, who, as it turned out, was the manager's first victim. Now the assistant is the new manager. Oh yeah, and somewhere along the line we met a baby Yoshi who now fights in the Pit and calls himself Gonzales Jr." She turned to Boshi. "You'd like him." She switched her gaze to Yoshi. "You wouldn't."

"I'll be the judge of that," he told her dryly.

The rest of the blimp trip was uneventful, and they soon touched down in the floating city. "Welcome to Glitzville!" announced the Goomba.

Boshi's jaw dropped the moment he set his eye's upon the massive building housing the Glitz Pit. "This place is massive!" He ran toward the Pit at top speed, squealing in anticipation.

"...Should we catch him?" Goombella asked her companion.

"...Probably," Yoshi replied. "Knowing him, he'll probably try to break into the locker rooms or do something even stupider."

Goombella snorted. "Yeah, right! Like that's gonna happen!" she managed between fits of giggles. "Those security guards are massive!" But still, they sprinted after their blue companion.

As it turned out, Boshi had done just that. When his allies found him, he was being held up by one of the guards, his legs thrashing wildly in a vain attempt to escape.

Yoshi rolled his eyes. "Boshi! What do you think you're doing?! Get down from there right now!"

" _Never!_ I must get into the locker rooms! I _must!_ " his rival cried.

"Well, we were going to go, but then _you_ decided to anger the guards! Now we're never going to get in!"

As if in agreement, the security guard muttered something incomprehensible into his mouthpiece, and soon, another one of the guards arrived. He proceeded to lift Yoshi and Goombella off of the ground.

"Hey, what the heck?!" protested Goombella. "What are you doing?! I'm innocent! I know the manager! I'm good friends with one of the major league fighters! You wouldn't hurt a lady, would you?! I'll get you fired! So help me, I will sue this place for everything it's got if you don't put me down right this instant!"

The guards apparently did not take her words to heart, as one of them simply clamped his hand over her mouth.

Fortunately, at that exact moment the door behind them opened, revealing a Toad with short blonde hair and oversized, pointed glasses. She had pink spots and red lipstick, and was dressed entirely in cherry-colored clothing. "What's all the hubbub in here?!"

Goombella, who had managed to bite the guard's hand, releasing her mouth, sighed in relief. "Jolene! Thank the Stars! Those _idiots_ were suffocating me!"

Jolene shot an irritated look at the two security guards, whose expressions had changed to those of abject horror. She set her gaze on Goombella. "Maybe you would like to talk inside my office. But, um... who are those two?" They both turned toward the two Yoshis, who lay in a crumpled heap on the ground.

"...We should really talk about this inside," Goombella told the referee. "Oh yeah, and get Gonzales Jr, and tell him to bring the Gold Star.

Jolene arched her eyebrows, but said nothing. She had learned long ago that whenever those two were involved, to just not question it. It was better for her health that way.

Soon, they arrived in her office. "So, make yourselves comfortable," said Jolene. "I still need to call Gonzales Jr."

She walked towards her laptop, and clicked her mouse a couple of times. Eventually, the three heard a pleasant beeping noise. "Gonzales Jr, please report to my office immediately. Bring the Gold Star, too." Another beeping noise.

A few seconds later, the Yoshi kid appeared in the doorway. "Yo, Jolene! Why'd ya call me? Do you want to reactivate the power-draining machine and use me as a test subject? 'Cause if you do, I like the way-" His sentence was cut short as he noticed that they were not alone in the room.

"Oh, hey, Goombella! Didn't notice ya there!" He ran over to the Goomba and tried to give her a high five, only to fall flat on his face. "Uh... who are those two?"

"Yes, I think both of us need an explanation, Goombella," Jolene asserted.

"Okay, but don't blame me if you fall down from complete and utter shock," informed Goombella in complete seriousness.

She told the story as best as she could, which was kind of hard, as she herself had only heard it from the others. As a result, Yoshi and Boshi constantly butted in to correct her.

After the tale was told, Jolene looked agitated, while Gonzales Jr. just appeared bored. "Goombella, if what you say is true, then... what's stopping this... Glitch from coming to _this_ island?"

"Nothing," she responed darkly, "except for the Four Heroes. And the Heroes can't use their power, because Mario's..." Her voice cracked. "But if we assemble the Crystal Stars, we might have a chance to beat Glitch! And free Mario!"

"Plus," added Gonzales Jr, "the Crystal Stars are at their strongest together."

Jolene sighed. "Very well. Gonzales, you have my blessing to take leave from the Pit. I'll think of something to tell the press. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to find two new guards." She said it jokingly enough, but they could all see the anxiety in her eyes. As they were leaving, Goombella, who was in the back, thought she could see the manager looking up blimp tickets on her laptop.

"So... why do you wear pants?" Yoshi questioned Gonzales Jr. as they walked out of the office.

Gonzales opened his mouth to reply, but before he could, Boshi interrupted him. "For the same reason I wear my sunglasses. They make us look _awesome!_ "

The Yoshi kid raised his arms. " _Finally,_ someone who understands!" he exclaimed.

Goombella gave Yoshi her best "I-told-you-so" face. The green dinosaur merely shrugged.

* * *

"I think we're lost," Peach admitted. After not finding the Squeek thief in her shop, they had no choice but to descend into the sewers. The princess had been confident that she could find her way into the Palace of Shadow and find Ms. Mowz. Unfortunately, either her confidence had been ill-placed, or Koops had been rubbing off on her, because they had somehow made it into the middle of an underground lake.

Toadsworth took a deep breath. "Your Grace, not to be rude, but... _you are seriously just figuring this out now?!_ "

"No," Peach retorted, "but I didn't want to say it to your face!"

"None the matter... let's just focus on getting out of here..." muttered Toadsworth, embarrassed by his outburst.

"Come to think of it, how _did_ we get here?"

They looked all around the platform they were on, but there was no sign of a bridge or anything of the sort.

"Well," said Peach, "isn't this simply dashing? I suppose we'll have to swim for it."

"What?!" Toadsworth cried. "The waters on this island are infested with Nibbles! You'll be eaten alive!"

"Oh, please! They're, like, this big!" She spread her hands so that they were about eighteen inches apart. And with that, she dove into the water.

"Princess!" wailed the elderly Toad.

Just then, the aforementioned princess resurfaced. "Toadsworth, I can take care of myself, thank you very much. And besides, there's not even any Nib-" Her eyes widened, and once more she went under.

Now, Toadsworth was not the bravest Toad. Quite the opposite, in fact. Sure, he was overprotective of the princess, but that was completely different from courage. It just went to show exactly _how_ protective he was when he leapt into the water, not for a second remembering he couldn't actually swim.

Well, he _did_ remember he couldn't swim... but only after he started sinking to the bottom of the lake. But once he had completely sunk, he saw what a situation they had gotten themselves into.

A small school of Nibbles was chewing on Peach's dress, which was, due to their vastly-underestimated size, making it impossible for her to swim back up. Meanwhile, another small group of the spherical sharks was currently revolving around Toadsworth. All in all, they were practically dead.

At least, that's what they both thought until the flash of light occurred. Fortunately for them, luck was on their side, for once the brilliance subsided, the Nibbles seemed to have simply frozen.

The two looked at each other, and nodded. Peach swam over to Toadsworth, grabbed his hand, and together, they swam out. They resurfaced back on the island they started on, but now, it had a new occupant. On it stood a white mouse with a red bandanna and matching high heels. In her hand she held a glowing green star.

"That was quite a pickle you got yourselves in, wasn't it, dearies?" she said, not really looking at them. You're lucky I had the Emerald Star; otherwise, you would've been toast! Honestly, I thought the thing would only help me with stealing badges! Oh, well, I guess you learn-" Her sentence was cut short as she gazed at her guests for the first time.

She gasped. "Your Majesty!"

Peach giggled. "Please, just call me Peach. It's no big deal."

The rodent relaxed. "Ah. Okay. Might I ask, though, what you are doing in the sewers, dearies? And who is that?" She wrinkled her nose at Toadsworth. "Did you, perhaps, break up with that cheese-hunk of a man, Mario? Is he open?" she asked, her ears perking up.

Peach felt her cheeks redden. "I'm not- We were never in-" She cleared her throat. "Anyways, we were actually looking for you, and we kinda got lost."

"Oh? And why would that be?"

"Uh... well... it's kind of a long story..."

Ms. Mowz looked at her expectantly. "I have time."

The princess took a deep breath. "Okay. Here we go." She told the thief everything.

After the narrative was done, Ms. Mowz's eyes were wide with shock. However, when she spoke, she attempted to hide this. "Oh, so Mario _isn't_ available, then?" She tried to appear nonchalant, but even she was unable to keep the shakiness out of her voice. "Well, off to Rogueport, then! We shouldn't keep the others waiting, d-dearies!" She said this in a more upbeat tone, but the emotion wasn't completely gone. But nonetheless, they set off.

"Uh... how are we supposed to get out of here?" Toadsworth questioned.

"Oh! Right!" exclaimed Ms. Mowz, who was now rummaging in her bag, seeming completely at ease. Peach wondered if she was forcing it or if she just took badges very seriously. Perhaps it was both. "Unless you want to swim, which I wouldn't recommend, the only way out of here is to go up." She pointed to a square hole in the ceiling.

"Aha!" The Squeek thief pulled out three identical badges. They each depicted a pair of red boots, with four lines underneath. "I found these badges when I was looting the Palace of Shadow. I've found..." She equipped one, then tossed the other two to Peach and Toadsworth. "...that they increase your jump height exponentially!" She vaulted up, closely followed by Peach and a more reluctant Toadsworth, and _then_ they were off.

* * *

While one group was being assaulted by security guards of an unknown species, and another was being drowned by circular carnivorous fish, Koops and Toad were simply doing a whole lot of waiting.

"Ugh!" complained Toad. "It's _so_ boring here! I came here because I wanted to find treasure, not because I wanted to sit at a dock for two hours!"

"Calm down," Koops chastised. "It's your fault you decided to go with me, and besides, it's only been..." He checked his father's Mailbox SP, which he had brought with him. "...an hour and thirty-two minutes since we got here!"

Toad slapped his forehead. "You had your dad's Mailbox SP on you this _whole time_?!"

Now it was Koops's turn to slap himself. "I can't believe I forgot!"

"How could you _forget_?!"

"In my defense, if I couldn't remember how to get to Rogueport, how was I supposed to remember that I had this?!"

"You were the one who _brought_ the thing!"

Koops didn't really have an argument for this, so he simply sighed, "No use complaining about it now... Let me just e-mail Bobbery..."

Meanwhile, Koopie Koo was sitting on the docks at Rogueport, waiting for Cortez's ship to arrive with the admiral. In doing this, she realized something.

"Couldn't we have just e-mailed everyone?!" she exclaimed.

She immediately got to her feet and raced to the nearest entrance to the sewers. Internally, she groaned. _Leave it to Koops to forget we could've just used his dad's Mailbox SP,_ she thought.

The blonde Koopa quickly got to the room with the Blue Pipe leading to Keelhaul Key and hopped in. Unfortunately for her, she didn't stop to consider where exactly she was going and just kept running in the direction she was facing. Needless to say, she was lost before she knew it.

Wearily, Koopie Koo dragged herself to the nearest stump. She had not anticipated becoming as disoriented as she was, and as a result had been wandering around for what felt like hours. It showed, too – sweat lined her forehead, and her shell had become uncomfortably warm. _How is this even possible? I'm pretty sure Koopas are cold-blooded... Stupid Keelhaul Key..._ she grumbled to herself.

After taking a short break, she decided to keep trying to find the shore, all while cursing her boyfriend, various deities, and occasionally, the island for breaking the rules of biology. In fact, she was so intent on complaining her misery away, that she failed to notice the pack of Fuzzies she was unknowingly walking into. That is, until after it was too late.

" _EEK!_ " she shrieked. " _SOMEONE HELP! I'M BEING ATTACKED BY A RABID HORDE OF FUZZIES! GET THEM OFF OF ME! HELP! CAN ANYONE EVEN HEAR ME?!_ "

As it turned out, someone could hear her – and that someone was Koops.

"Uh... did you hear that?" he questioned his partner, who had taken to sticking his head in the water and seeing how long he could hold his breath. "I think it was my girlfriend."

"No," came the voice of Toad from under the water. "Of course, my ears are clogged, so I'm probably not reliable."

"Well, I'm going to go check it out," he told the Toad. "Don't drown, and call me if Bobbery comes."

Toad gave him a thumbs-up. Based on the fact that his other hand was clutching his throat, Koops got the feeling he wasn't taking his job all too seriously.

In actuality, Koopie Koo had traveled nearly the entire length of the island without realizing it. As a result, it didn't really take her boyfriend that long to find her.

" _KOOPS!_ " she screamed with what little energy she had left. " _OVER HERE!_ "

Immediately, her boyfriend's shell plowed through the colorful parasites. Koopie Koo smiled inwardly. Koops had picked up a few nifty skills during his adventure, even if he was still a klutz... and still relied on her for moral support... and forgot he'd packed the item that would've prevented them from getting into this mess in the first place. That she wasn't so willing to forgive.

Once he was finished with the Fuzzies, Koops turned his attention towards his girlfriend. "Koopie Koo! Are you okay? W-What are you doing here?!" He helped her to her feet.

Unsteadily, the ponytailed Koopa managed to stand on her own. She then proceeded to slap her boyfriend. " _STUPID KOOPA! HOW COULD YOU FORGET YOU HAD THE MAILBOX SP WITH YOU THE ENTIRE TIME?! IF YOU HAD JUST REMEMBERED, THEN WE WOULDN'T BE IN THIS MESS! BUT NOOOO! INSTEAD, YOU HAVE TO SEND EVERYONE ON A WILD GOOSE CHASE TO JAYDES-KNOWS-WHERE!_ "

Koops looked startled, but also relieved at the same time. "W-Well, I _did_ e-mail B-Bobbery... t-ten minutes ago..." he stammered sheepishly. "And in m-my defense," he added, "Everyone else f-forgot, too!"

This just served to make Koopie Koo angrier. " _SO WHAT?! I DON'T CARE WHAT THOSE PEOPLE DID! THE POINT IS, YOU FORGOT, AND IT'S YOUR FAULT WE'RE IN THIS SITUATION! NOT MINE, NOT GOOMBELLA'S, NOT ANYONE ELSE'S, NOT EVEN SOME DEITY FROM THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO! YOU!"_ Her expression softened a little. "...But you _did_ remember... eventually." She kissed his cheek, and with that, they headed back toward the settlement.

Just then, Koops's Mailbox SP began ringing. "Just a second," he called out to his girlfriend. He flipped the device open and saw that the e-mail was from the admiral. It read:

 _Alright. On my way._

 _You're lucky you contacted me in time, old boy! Cortez and I were just about to set sail all the way to the mainland!_

 _(There's no signal that far away from the island, in case you didn't know.)_

The clumsy Koopa smiled. _Maybe I'm not so unlucky after all_ , he mused. He immediately tripped over a root and into a muddy pond.

* * *

Many miles west of there, a certain green-clad plumber had the exact same problem. (Minus the pond, of course. Koops was very unique in that respect.) He grumpily hoisted himself off of the leafy terrain for the umpteenth time that day.

Grumbling, Luigi did a mental recap on his time after leaving the professor's house. He had parted ways with Goombella and the two Yoshis in West Rogueport in order to reach the pipe leading to Twilight Town.

Once he was safely in the sewers, he spent about five minutes freaking out about where he would have to go to find and recruit Vivian. Of all the places he could've gone, he had to go to the one called Twilight Town. Oh, joy! He sincerely hoped it had nothing to do with ghosts and/or vacuums and/or spooky, perpetually dark forests.

Naturally, his journey had to do with all of the above. He quickly realized that Vivian wasn't there, and learned from the locals that she and her sisters had decided to move into the Creepy Steeple, whose foyer was filled to the brim with ghosts. They were apparently renovating the structure (that was where the vacuums came in), and he would have to travel through a spooky, perpetually dark forest to get there.

Now, Luigi wasn't a brave person in the first place, but he was especially frightened of spooky, perpetually dark forests. As a result, with every tiny sound not coming from himself, the plumber spun around wildly in an attempt to find the source. This caused him to not see incoming roots, resulting in lots and lots of tripping.

And that, in a nutshell, had been Luigi's hour. It had not been a very good hour. So, Luigi was even more overjoyed than the usual traveler when he noticed that the trees were thinning, and, better yet, there was light that wasn't produced by the moon up ahead. Of course, there was still both the ghosts and the vacuums to look forward to...

He unlocked the gate and climbed up the small incline to reach the front door of the Steeple. He took a deep breath and tried to calm his nerves. "Okay, Luigi. You can do this. It's not like you'll have to go _in_ or anything. You'll just knock on the door, ask for Vivian, and be on your way." Knowing he couldn't put the moment off any longer, he took hold of the knocker and let it fly into the door.

A second passed. Then two. Then five. Soon Luigi began to hope that they weren't home. Naturally, the doors chose that moment to instantaneously open, revealing a diminutive, shadowy figure. "Eep!" yelped the man in green.

"Who are you? What business do you have here?!" she interrogated. Despite her size, she was quite intimidating. Her body was a dark shade of violet – so dark, that she seemed to blend into the shadows. In fact, where her legs should've been, there was instead a smoky tendril rooted to the ground. In contrast to her skin tone, on her hands were elegant white gloves. Her hair was a light shade of lavender, and she wore a blue and white-striped hat, which covered her eyes. Her only visible features were her long, pointy nose, which reminded Luigi of a witch, and her mouth, which was twisted into a cruel sneer.

"I-I'm h-here to s-see V-Vivian. She l-lives h-here, r-right?" stammered Luigi, who immediately felt uncomfortable around the being.

The figure stroked her chin in thought, as if deciding whether or not to kill him on the spot. At last, she seemed to come to a decision. "Very well," she said. "I'll go get her." She turned to the inside of the Steeple. "Vivian, my lovely! There's someone here to see you!"

There was no response. Growling, the figure turned back to him. "She's not here. Please come back later. Although," she added as an afterthought, "if you really need to see her, I'd check in the garden over there." She pointed to the left, towards a rough path through the trees. "That's where she and Marilyn are putting all of that freak-in-a-sheet's junk." Luigi opened his mouth to say something, but the door closed and once more he was alone.

Grumbling to himself about the lady's rudeness, the plumber made his way to the garden. He eventually arrived next to a tall tree with beautiful golden leaves. Laid against the trunk was all manner of odds and ends, which Luigi supposed was the junk that the being had mentioned. Other than that, though, there was no sign of Vivian.

"Gah!" he complained. "Where is she?!"

"Where is who?"

Luigi turned around wildly. "Who said that?!"

"Me, dumbo." After more spinning, the voice eventually clarified, "Try looking _behind_ the tree."

Luigi followed the voice's advice and found himself face-to-face with... a parrot.

"There you go, buddy!" the parrot squawked. "Now, where is _who_?"

Deciding to disregard the fact that he was having a conversation with a parrot, Luigi said, "Someone named Vivian. You wouldn't happen to know her, would you?"

"Describe her."

Luigi didn't actually know what Vivian looked like, but he assumed it was similar to the shadow lady he'd met earlier. "Uh... sort of dark purple? White gloves? Striped hat?"

The parrot's eyes widened in recognition. "That sounds like one of those jerks who brought me here! You must be talking about the smaller one. She has a red hat," he informed Luigi. He laughed bitterly. "You'd think, that after being trapped at the bottom of a well for so long, that I'd finally be freed from this cage. But nooooope! They just keep me here with all of their other junk! And right next to this tree, too! Hey, where'd you go?"

Luigi, as it turned out, had gone to the bottom of the well in the hopes that Vivian was there. Instead, all he got was a chubby version of the first lady whose vocabulary consisted only of the sound "guh."

"Are you Vivian?" he asked her, though he knew the answer already. The parrot had mentioned that Vivian had a red hat, not a yellow one like this one.

"Guh," responded the shadow, shaking her head.

"Do you know where she is?"

The lady pointed toward the exit. "Guh!"

Luigi felt his patience begin to wane. "Uh... I couldn't quite understand. Maybe you could show me some other way?" he inquired pointedly.

The shadow made what could've been interpreted as a sigh, then motioned for Luigi to hold onto her rather substantial hand. He did so, and a few seconds later, felt himself sink into the earth. The next thing he knew, he was in Twilight Town. The being pointed towards the item shop, then disappeared into the darkness once more.

Luigi groaned. She had been in Twilight Town the whole time, and he hadn't even known it! "Let's just get this over with," he muttered dejectedly.

As it turned out, she had not been in Twilight Town the whole time. When asked about her, the shopkeeper's wife responded with, "Yeah, someone like that came in here about fifteen minutes ago. My husband didn't have what she needed, so she left. I heard her mention something about Rogueport..."

At this point, Luigi was seriously considering giving up on his life and settle for raising Li'l Oinks. Unfortunately for him, however, he had a job to do. So, he made the long trek through the sewers and back to Rogueport's surface.

He eventually found himself in the Toad Bros. Bazaar. Luckily for him, Vivian had been there. Unluckily for him, she had left just a minute prior. And just when Luigi thought his life couldn't get any worse, he found out that Vivian had, in fact, decided to visit Professor Frankly and surprise Goombella.

At this point, Luigi traveled to the nearest wall and began hammering his head into it. Fortunately for his frontal lobe, it was only two bruises later that he found the will to go back to the professor's house. The only consolation he received was the fact that Vivian seemed very distressed over the incident. The others just seemed mildly amused.

* * *

Toadette was wasting time. Well, at least that was how practically everyone in the multiverse and beyond saw it. In her own little world, she was simply admiring the natural beauty that was the Boggly Woods. Naturally, this meant two hours of wandering away from the Great Tree and into the forest, talking to the trees, talking to the trees' inhabitants, trying to get the trees' inhabitants to live with her, getting attacked by the trees' inhabitants, more wandering, finally remembering her assigned task, getting sidetracked, and just generally having a good time.

As such, it was simply dumb luck that the Toad girl stumbled upon the Great Tree once more. "Hey, I remember this place!" she exclaimed. "It was where I taught Mario how to use the Super Boots! How'd I get in there again? Wasn't it taken over by those X guys?" She shrugged it off. "Wait, wasn't I supposed to be looking for somebody?"

Another half-hour of random pointless occurred. In fact, Toadette was so stuck in her own world (more so than usual) that she failed to notice the very loud and _very_ obvious commotion coming from the tree. But while any rational person (or Toad) would go and investigate or at the very least react in someway, Toadette remained blissfully unaware.

That is, until the humanoid purple cloud with a rather heavy necklace got dumped on her face. "Heeeey!" she complained while trying and failing to push the cloud off. "What gives! I mean, I'm just standing in front of the tree, trying to talk to the leaves, when all of a sudden, _bam_! I get a cloud lady dropped on me!"

Luckily for her, the cloud soon got up and began apologizing profusely. "Oh my goodness! My dear, I'm so sorry that I landed on you! I never expected for anyone to be there..." Her voice trailed off. "Oh, no!" she gasped. "What would the presses say if they found out that the great Madame Flurrie injured an innocent little girl?! My reputation would be shattered! My comeback would be ruined! Please!" She grabbed Toadette by the shoulders. "Promise me you won't tell anyone!"

Toadette, being, well, Toadette, caught absolutely none of this. Instead, she simply gazed at the cloud and suddenly realized what she was supposed to be doing. "Are you Flurrie?" she inquired.

Flurrie looked startled about the sudden deviation from her plead, but she just shrugged it off. "Why, yes! I am the glorious Madame Flurrie, actress extraordinaire! Might I ask what you are doing here?"

"Oh, me and my friends got into a plane crash but we landed in Petalburg where we met Koopie Koo and Koops who led us to Rogueport where we met Goombella and Professor Frankly where we told them about our near-death experience on Yoshi's Island and we found out that the fabric of existence itself and also Mario is in danger and we need the Crystal Stars to save him and I went to get you and the others went to get your other partners and now here we are," replied Toadette nonchalantly.

"I'm sorry, dear, but as much as I'd like to help save Mario and... that other stuff you mentioned, we have a more immediate problem on our hands," Flurrie told her. "You said all of my partners from my adventure are at Frankly's house?" Toadette nodded. "Okay. That is good. There still may be hope yet. Now, come on!" She grabbed hold of Toadette's wrist and hopped into the blue pipe.

"Wait, what's happening? What's the problem?" Toadette asked as she hurtled through the pipe, confusion evident in her voice.

"No time to explain," responded Flurrie breathlessly. "Maybe I shouldn't have ignored my diet and fired my personal trainer..." she murmured to herself. "Whatever. Do hurry up; we're almost there!"

They raced through the underground ruins. At last they emerged aboveground. They burst through the professor's door, panting and sweaty.

"Whoa, what happened to you two?" questioned Gonzales Jr.

Between deep breaths, Flurrie finally managed to form a coherent sentence. "It's... the... Shadow... Queen..." she wheezed. "She's... back..."

* * *

 **A/N: Once again, massive apologies for the wait... and the cliffhanger. Tee hee hee.**

 **So, to recap: Boshi is reckless, Peach has terrible navigational skills, Koops makes a big mistake, Luigi is sent on a long and pointless fetch quest, and Toadette is herself.**

 **Anyways, you may have noticed that I changed the fourth character in the description from OC (Glitch) to Bowser. This is because I've edited my story plans a bit, and it has a lot more Bowser than I originally planned.**

 **Also, I'm going to begin responding to reviews in this section now, partially to answer any questions anyone might have, and partially to encourage people to review.**

 **Avalain Nightshade: Which ones don't you know?**

 **~I Am A Toad**


	9. Sacrifice

**Heads up! From now on, I will include a cipher at the end of each chapter. (cough, Gravity Falls, cough) The cipher could be anything, from major spoilers to random jokes. In each chapter, there will be a clue on how to decode it. Ready? Good.**

 **DISCLAIMER: I do not own Mario. If I did, I would totally get Koji Kondo and Yoko Shimomura to work together in a game. (Preferably an RPG.) The result, I feel, would be godly.**

* * *

 _Chapter IX: Sacrifice_

In Lemmy Koopa's opinion, things were starting to get boring in Dark Land. His father hadn't kidnapped Princess Peach in over a month, which was a _long_ time, especially. And while at first he and his siblings were more than happy to lounge around the castle, the routine of practicing tricks on his ball all day and every day was really starting to get stale.

Which was why today was really a nice change of pace, really.

It had all started when Lemmy decided that if he practiced any longer, he was going to go insane. Apparently, most of his siblings had already come to that conclusion, as Lemmy found them all sprawled out in the castle lounge. The only ones absent were Iggy, who was already insane, and Ludwig, who was already boring. (Or at the very least, unaffected by boredom.)

"Um... hey, guys..." greeted Lemmy, attempting to break the ice. "What are you guys doing...?"

All he got in response were a few agonized groans. Finally, Larry spoke. "Oh, you know... doing nothing for a few hours straight..." There were a few grunts of agreement.

"Do you guys want to do anything...?" Lemmy tried again.

Morton lifted his head. "We've tried everything! We've tried reading, playing sports, playing video games, playing dress-up, watching cartoons, watching movies, watching game shows, even watching the news!" he exclaimed in exasperation.

Sleepily, Wendy turned to Morton. "You forgot the board games..."

Larry snorted. "There's a reason they're called 'bored' games, sis."

At that point, Lemmy knew that there was definitely something wrong, because on a normal day, Wendy would have thrown a fit if anyone talked back to her like that. Not that anyone would have the guts to do that, which was another problem.

"Why don't we watch the news?" he suggested. "Maybe there's something interesting going on."

"It ain't gonna happen, pipsqueak," Roy groaned. Well, at least hope wasn't completely lost if Roy was still calling him names.

"I concur," Morton agreed. "We tried doing that, remember? All they ever have on is news about crime and kart crashes and the weather. And it's always that annoying reporter lady, Kylie Koopa."

"Isn't she a journalist?" Lemmy asked, confused.

"Exactly!"

"Well, let's just see, anyways," Lemmy told his siblings. "Who knows, maybe she's sick or something."

The rest of the Koopalings simply groaned once more.

The agile Koopa fished the remote out of the couch and switched the TV on. To his disappointment, he saw that Kylie Koopa was indeed there and that she was in the middle of a weather report.

"Told ya so," muttered Roy.

"...and in Dark Land, we got soaring temperatures with a high of 101 degrees Fahrenheit along the coast! Meanwhile, in Koopa City, you folks better..." went the Koopa reporter.

Lemmy groaned. "Good gravy! She somehow manages to be super boring yet super annoying at the same time! I don't know how much more of this I can take..."

Somehow, he managed to survive the very long and _very_ opinionated weather report.

"Now," said Kylie, "back to our latest breaking news story. What's the report, hun?" The camera switched to another Koopa reporter. She had a sky-blue shell and shoes of the same color, and her long, blonde hair was kept out of her face by a basic blue headband. From the looks of it, she was standing in a helicopter above the ocean.

"Haha! Kylie's gone! Yes!" Lemmy rejoiced.

"She is?!" exclaimed Junior. "No more annoying reporter lady! Yay!"

The remaining Koopalings joined them. "I wonder if there was a plane crash," Larry mused.

"Thanks, Kylie," the reporter said into her earpiece. "Anyway, all military attempts to breach the black wall that has blocked all connections to Yoshi's Island have ended in failure." The camera shifted to reveal a large black barrier in the middle of the ocean, and Lemmy felt his jaw drop. "For those that don't know, the wall appeared at approximately 10:19 a.m., Island Time." Lemmy did some quick calculations in his head. That would mean 7:19 in Dark Time, which was the time zone Dark Land belonged to. He glanced at the clock. It was currently 10:31. "The Beanbean and Mushroom Kingdoms have already sent their military to the site, with help from Sarasaland on its way."

"How did we not know about this sooner?" Wendy wondered out loud. Lemmy shook his head. He had no idea.

"What is especially troubling is that Princess Peach Toadstool of the Mushroom Kingdom was reportedly vacationing on the island at the time of the incident, as well as the famous plumbers Mario and Luigi. In other news..."

"...We should probably tell King Dad about this, shouldn't we."

"...Yup."

"...We should also get out of here before Kylie comes back and starts droning about the latest footwear trends, shouldn't we."

"...Yup."

And thus five Koopalings barreled out of the lounge, closely followed by Lemmy, and right into two elderly Magikoopas and one Ludwig Von Koopa.

"Hey!" Kammy shrieked. "Kamek! Get off of me! You're crushing my spine!"

"I am trying to, you old _hag_ ," retorted Kamek, "but someone's shell is jabbing my face and it really hurts."

"That would be me," Ludwig apologized. "If Wendy would _please_ get her rings away from me I may be able to assist you."

"It's not _my_ fault," Wendy cried. "Larry's shell is pinning me down!"

Larry rolled his eyes. "Well, excuuuse me, princess! Also, if Morton is on my plastron for any longer, I'm gonna suffocate."

For one, Morton didn't say anything, as Roy's sunglasses were digging into his face. Roy, meanwhile, had a few choice words to say about Junior.

"What did you just call me, you meanie?!" the Koopa in question demanded.

"Guys, you all need to calm down and get off of each other in an orderly fashion," advised Lemmy in a worried tone.

"Easy for you to say; you're not in this mess!" accused Wendy. It was true; Lemmy had actually taken the time to turn off the TV while the others had rushed out.

Eventually, after about five minutes of cussing, screaming, complaining, and general chaos, the unfortunate victims of the pile-up finally managed to escape.

"Now, if you'll excuse us, we have a very urgent meeting with your father, and cannot afford to waste another second," Kamek said. Ludwig gravely nodded, while Kammy just seemed vaguely annoyed.

"Actually," Larry hastily told them, "we were going to see King Dad about something, too."

"Really?" asked Ludwig. "For what?"

"Well," Larry responded, "we saw on the news today that for the past three hours, there's been a giant black wall cutting off connections to Yoshi's Island, and we wanted to tell King Dad about it."

Kammy looked unimpressed. "Why should King Bowser care? Yoshi's Island is one of the Mushroom Kingdom's closest allies. With it out of the picture, we have a better chance of defeating that pesky plumber!"

"Yeah, right," Roy snickered. "An' besides, it won't even matter. Da princess was on da island, y'know. Same with da Mario Brothers."

"What?!" exclaimed Ludwig in shock.

Kamek, however, did not hear that comment at all. Instead, he looked very anxious. "Kammy, these kids may be onto something. This may have something to do with the disruption I felt earlier."

Kammy stared at him as if he had grown elephant ears. (That actually had happened once, when they were teaching a young Ludwig a transmutation spell.) "You _seriously_ still believe in that stuff?!" she exclaimed incredulously. "Time magic. Pfft. What rubbish."

"Au contraire!" Kamek shot back. "Several of the most ancient accounts in this world – accounts that are tens of thousands of years old, mind you – clearly state that the Ancient Ones had magic so powerful, that they could control time itself. It took me decades of research; spending all of my free time meticulously translating each and every text to just discover the basics of this lost art! It was but three weeks ago that I finally honed my magical skills to become in tune with the rapids of history! And just three hours ago, I felt a disruption in time's natural flow, as if time was resetting itself. So, explain that."

"Pah!" Kammy laughed. "You must be going senile! And-"

"How do I know I even translated these texts correctly?" interjected the senior wizard. "Because I knew you were going to say that, that's how."

"Wh-Wha- I-" stammered Kammy, momentarily at a loss for words. "How do I know you didn't just use a basic Mind Scan on me?!"

"Because if I had, you clearly would've simply put up a Scan Barrier. Surely a talented witch such as you would know to do so, correct? Or were you too incompetent to get to that point in your apprenticeship?"

"Why, you-" Kammy started, despite the fact that she had not, in fact, progressed that far in her time as a student of magic.

"Break it up, you two! We have more important things to do! Now, we must go to the Throne Room and inform King Dad! _Right_?" Ludwig demanded, sensing an argument was brewing.

Both mages grumbled, but said nothing, and soon the party was headed through the winding corridors leading to the Koopa King.

On their way, Lemmy approached Kamek. Although he was not nearly as adept at magic as Ludwig, he did know the basics of it from watching his brother train. As such, he could vaguely sense that Kamek had used mental magic on Kammy. "You used a Mind Scan on her, didn't you," he whispered.

The blue-robed Magikoopa chuckled. "Indeed I did."

* * *

As they neared the room, it became apparent that they were not the first ones to visit Bowser that day. There was a trail of machine oil leading into the chamber, a telltale sign that Iggy Koopa had been there. And from the looks of it, he still hadn't left.

As they got closer still, they began to hear the hushed voices of Bowser and Iggy. Lemmy strained his ears in order to make sense of what they were discussing.

"...no doubt about it. I've had this machine for over a year now, and it's never been wrong."

"How do you know your hunk of metal isn't defective?"

"I have all of my inventions wired to a central notification system. If there is any problem with them, I'll know as soon as it happens."

"I still don't believe it. There is _no_ way he can be back."

Just then, Kamek barged in, followed by an extremely miffed Kammy and seven apprehensive Koopalings. "Your Dubiousness," he said, kneeling, "my most sincere apologies for interrupting this obviously-important meeting, but we have urgent news that must be shared this instant."

Bowser raised an eyebrow. "Oh? And what is this so-called 'urgent news?'"

"Well, my lord, it all started three hours ago, when I felt a disturbance in the natural flow of time." Bowser looked unimpressed, while Iggy just made a _meep!_ sound.

"It felt as though time itself was resetting," the wizard continued. "Naturally, that alone was enough for me to drop everything and tell you, but that pink _demon_ straight from the Underwhere kept me from getting to you for the longest time." Bowser now appeared to be vaguely interested, and Iggy was doing... something with his machine.

"I then ran into those six over there, and they told me something very alarming. Apparently, there is an utterly massive black wall cutting off all connections to and from Yoshi's Island. It is highly plausible that the two events are connected somehow.

Bowser's expression shifted once more, this time to one of mild irritation. "Tell me, Kamek, why I should care about this. Isn't Yoshi's Island one of the Mushroom Kingdom's closest allies? Why in the _world_ would I help them?"

"Yes! Yes! Absolutely right, Your Correctness!" Kammy immediately agreed. "Not only that, but this blue _devil_ is suggesting sending aid to an enemy of Dark Land, which is treason! Off with his head!"

Even Bowser looked a little freaked out about the witch's sudden outburst. "Uh... that won't be necessary, Kammy. But," he asserted, "I do agree that helping the enemy would be ludicrous. You are all dismissed." He waved his hand as though he was shooing a particularly annoying group of flies away.

Reluctantly, they all began to trudge toward the exit – all except for one: Larry Koopa. "Y'know, King Dad, that this is the wrong decision, right?" Bowser raised an eyebrow and glared at his second-youngest son, but let him continue. "If you don't send our military, other countries are going to think we don't care," he informed the Koopa King. "If they think we don't care about other nations, then they might cut off trade between us and them. If trade is cut off between Dark Land and the other kingdoms, our economy plummets. And so do we."

Bowser nodded thoughtfully. Despite his age, Larry did make a good point. (A part of Bowser wondered how Larry knew so much about economics and politics, but he decided to ignore it.) Besides, most, if not all, countries were suspicious and distrustful of Dark Land. All it would take was one small push for them to withdraw completely...

After a few more minutes of tense silence, the great Koopa King finally caved in. "Alright," he conceded. "I shall send a few small airships, and-"

"Oh yeah," Larry interjected nonchalantly. "There's also the small fact that Princess Peach was on the island when it was blocked."

"What?!" cried Bowser, jumping out of his seat and causing the floor to rumble. "Kamek! Send Dark Land's entire military force to Yoshi's Island! Any troop who is not stationed there by sundown will lose their status as part of this army, and will be banished from this castle!"

"A-Actually," Iggy muttered timidly, "That's n-not a g-good idea e-either." Everyone in the room stared at the spectacled Koopa incredulously. Due to his mental instability, Iggy tended to avoid speaking in front of crowds like the plague – especially if the crowds included his entire family.

"Oh? And why is that?" Even Bowser's tone seemed gentler when it came to Iggy.

The scientist whimpered, but continued anyway. "Well, r-remember, King D-Dad, how I w-was showing y-you my m-machine?"

"Yes," said Ludwig, "what was that about?" Like Lemmy, he, too, had listened in on Bowser and Iggy's hushed exchange.

Iggy turned to his father for assistance. His expression was one of absolute helplessness and despair, and it was clear that just one minute had already taken quite a toll on his mind. For the second time that day, Bowser found himself giving in.

"Uh..." Bowser cleared his throat. "So basically, Iggy came into the throne room about... fifteen minutes ago. He showed me this machine that he'd invented a long time ago that could track anyone within a one hundred-mile radius. Y'know, to help us prepare for the Mario Bros' attacks."

"Fat lotta good dat did us," muttered Roy under his breath.

The Koopa King shot his son an icy glare before continuing. "So apparently, his machine picked up two signals coming toward the castle from the east. It took a while for him to figure them out, apparently, but when he did he came straight to me."

"Who did they belong to?" Lemmy inquired.

Bowser leaned closer to his children. "Fawful," he whispered. "Fawful and Midbus."

"Who?" Bowser Jr. asked confusedly.

The seven older Koopalings winced then glanced at each other briefly, as if deciding who would tell him. Finally, Ludwig spoke up. "Well, the first time he came, you were just a toddler. His mistress possessed our father and sent us seven out to fight the Mario Brothers."

"Is this one of the times when the Mario Bros. helped us?" asked Junior.

"In the end, yes," Ludwig recalled. "The second time, it was much worse. He incapacitated King Dad, and took over the entire castle. Fortunately, Kamek escaped with us to Dimble Wood before we got brainwashed." He nodded gratefully to the Magikoopa.

"Haha! Kamek, one; Kammy, zero!" taunted the wizard.

Bowser cleared his throat. " _Anyways_ ," he said pointedly, "Iggy here was trying to tell me that Fawful and Midbus were headed back to the castle. And apparently, he's figured something else out since our little... conversation."

"Oh... uh... r-right," muttered Iggy, adjusting his glasses. "S-So... yeah. W-When I h-heard you g-guys talking a-about t-time and the b-barrier, it got me th-thinking." He twitched.

 _Give him some space,_ Lemmy mouthed to the rest of his siblings. He was probably the closest to Iggy and knew that he felt most comfortable when he was alone.

Indeed, Iggy seemed to relax as if the sky itself had been lifted off his shoulders. "So, I cross-checked it with my energy tracking m-machine, and what I found was really surprising. See that circle?" He held up his machine, which showed a map of Dark Land and the surrounding areas. In the area where Yoshi's Island would've been, there was a large circle of pitch-blackness. "I-I think that might be the barrier that's being talked about on the news. Not only that, but can you see these trails leading west of it?" They looked closely at the monitor. Indeed, there were six or seven lines all going to the left of the circle. "I can't say anything about the rest of them, but I know for sure that two of them are on the exact same path as Fawful and Midbus are taking."

"So, what is the dark stuff?" Larry asked.

Iggy, who was not anticipating any inquiries, went back into nervous wreck mode. "W-Well- I- You s-see-" He went on like that for a good while before finally remembering how to speak. "M-my hypothesis is th-that it's t-time magic. B-Because Fawful d-died, r-remember? S-So how would someone b-bring him back? A-And why d-does it have the s-same energy s-signature as the b-barrier around Y-Yoshi's Island?"

Bowser looked impressed. "That's some good work you did there, son," he complimented.

Iggy, however, wasn't even paying attention. "W-Want more proof? H-Here, look. There a-are v-very faint energy s-signals of the s-same type b-being emitted off of K-Kamek. S-See?" He zoomed in to the castle, and his eyes widened.

"What is it?" asked a concerned Lemmy.

"OHMYGOSHTHEY'RELITERALLYRIGHTONOURFRONTGATEWEAREALLGONNADIE!" Iggy wailed. His machine clattered to the floor.

"Uh... What did you just say?" Wendy interrogated.

"I know what he said," Lemmy replied darkly, staring at the monitor. "Fawful and Midbus are here." The rest of them stared at the screen. Sure enough, two dots, labeled "Fawful" and Midbus," were standing right outside of the castle.

Just then, an explosion rocked the castle, knocking the eleven reptiles over. Bowser pressed a button on his throne. "All troops, to the northwestern gardens, now!" He faced the two mages. "Get them to safety," he instructed.

Kamek nodded gravely. "Come, children," the wizard beckoned. "We haven't a second to waste." And with that, they disappeared into the castle halls once more.

* * *

They found the portal entirely by accident. Kammy had sent the eight Koopas to pack their stuff, and Roy, naturally, went to the training grounds. Since the grounds were pretty far away from the throne room, most of the others were already done by the time he got there. As such, they all got to witness the swirling green circle smack-dab in the center of the area.

"Uh... what is _that_?" Larry queried.

For once, Kamek did not have an answer to this. Instead, his face rather resembled that of a fish. Eventually, he responded, "I have absolutely no clue."

Kammy tapped her foot impatiently. "Come on, children! We do _not_ have all day!" As if Fawful was agreeing with her, another explosion knocked them over. However, her commands fell onto deaf ears, as the rest of them were all for examining the vortex.

"Whoa!" Iggy cried. "These ripples have the same energy as Fawful and the Yoshi's Island barrier!"

"And?" Wendy questioned boredly.

"It means," replied Ludwig, "that this portal is, in fact, a rip in the fabric of time itself."

"What's it doing here?" Lemmy pondered.

Iggy opened his mouth to reply, but just then, Bowser barged in. "Kids!" he yelled. "What are you doing here?! You gotta get outta here!" Suddenly, a ball of energy hit Bowser on the tail, and he flew through the air, landing in a crumpled heap in front of ten horrified Koopas.

"I HAVE CHORTLES!" came a voice from behind the entrance. "Fawful laughs at you, Bowser who I hate who is stupid! You have led Fawful to the object of your demise! Midbus! Take care of the fink-rat who is stupid!"

The Beanish stepped aside to reveal a brawny, pig-bull creature who probably would've been more intimidating had it not been for his unfortunate magenta coloration. "Yes, Lord Fawful," Midbus said. "BOWSER! Now I win! And you lose!" He tackled Bowser, and the others barely got away in time.

Fortunately, Bowser was not one to be taken down so easily. He easily avoided Midbus's attacks, and between punches, he managed to demand to Fawful, "What do you want here? You've already lost twice; what makes you think you can win this time?"

Fawful laughed. "My hamburger of power has had the extra condiments added to it by the Glitch of greatness, while yours has nothing but the meat and the bun! Allow a demonstration to be given by Fawful!" He pointed to the Koopas and gradually raised his arms. They felt themselves rising up until they began hovering at about five feet in the air. "Haha! Now, you are floating there like ten flying birds! Now you are of the ability to have comfort while Fawful begins the show!"

Fawful now turned to the portal, raised his arms, and began to chant, "Lufwaf yek erènegiv, edoc dne rof! Eidl lah smod gnikap ookeht!" Fawful's hands became surrounded by a hazy green fog – the same color as the portal. Soon, the Beanish's entire body became enveloped in the mist. Abruptly, a chain of zeroes and ones shot out of the vortex, and it didn't stop until the entire room was filled with the binary. Even when it was out of the portal, the string still grew.

"What is it?" Lemmy whispered. After attempting to escape their sky-high imprisonment to no avail, the Koopalings had resorted to watching helplessly as Fawful performed his crazy ritual.

"Whoa!" Iggy shouted a bit louder than necessary. "That stuff Fawful pulled out – that's giving off unbelievably high time energy ratings!"

"And what exactly does that mean?" Junior asked, raising an eyebrow. Everyone turned expectantly to Iggy, who instantaneously reverted back into nervous wreck mode.

Luckily for him, Kamek opted to answer in his place. "It means," he responded gravely, "that this madman; our greatest enemy – holds time itself in his hands."

"YOU HAVE CORRECTNESS!" came Fawful's voice from down below. "Fawful holds the string cheese that is time in his hands – and Fawful will be doing the peeling of the cheesy string!"

Kamek's eyes widened. "You wouldn't-"

"Fawful would," the Beanish interrupted. "And Fawful will do it right now!" He summoned a particularly shiny zero into his hands. "This number," he explained, "is the sweet strawberry jelly inside the donut filled with the jelly!"

"Huh? What's dat supposed to mean?" Roy muttered to Kamek.

"It means," hissed the wizard, "that that number; that single moment in time – is important in some way." Roy nodded thoughtfully.

"But," continued Fawful, "sweet jelly is surrounded by the donut of deliciousness! Otherwise it would have the oozing and the gushing out!" He moved his fingers to a number a few inches away from the bright digit. "That is why, to reach such jelly, you must go through the delicious donut first!"

Suddenly, he snapped the digit in half, and the strand immediately stopped growing. Instead, it started to fade to a dull gray color, one digit at a time. The lustrous zero held out a good while longer than its neighbors, but it too eventually succumbed to the bleakness. Soon, the entire strand past the broken digit faded into nonexistence.

"Soon, your entire castle of stupidness shall share the same fate, and Fawful will be chortling at you in a cozy couch that also chortles at you! For now... Midbus! Seal the King of Koopas who is stupid who I hate!"

The pig-bull-whatever-exactly-it-was merely grunted in response. He faced Bowser one more. "This ends now!" he bellowed. He laid his hands on the Koopa King, and an orange crystal enveloped him like a second skin. In mere seconds, Bowser became immobile. In fact, the only way an onlooker could tell that Bowser was still alive was the fact that his eyes were darting around frantically.

"Excellence!" Fawful exclaimed. "Now it is the turn of _you_ to be forever disappearing... without Fawful!" He pointed at the Koopalings before vanishing into thin air, with his minion in tow.

Immediately, the ten Koopas found that the laws of gravity once again applied to them as they dropped to the floor. "Uh... I know I've already said this once today," Larry exclaimed, "but what is that?!" He pointed towards the remains of he strand, where a giant black hole was starting to form.

"I don't know, but it doesn't look good!" Kammy shouted. "Now, come on!" She grabbed onto the two people closest to her (who happened to be Ludwig and Kamek) and strode off, only to be stopped by a rather large hunk of plaster and granite.

"The castle's collapsing..." Iggy whispered in a mixture of awe and fear. Sure enough, the castle walls were disintegrating; the floor, turning to dust; even his machine was slowly imploding.

"So this is what Fawful meant..." Kamek murmured thoughtfully. "If that's the case, we have to leave straightaway. There's no telling how much time we have before the castle collapses."

"Plus, dat thing looks like it's growin'," Roy informed them.

"Wait!" Junior cried. "What about King Dad?! We can't just leave him here!" The young prince scampered over to the translucent crystal that encased his father. "Come on, guys, help me lift him!"

The rest of the Koopa's siblings came over to him promptly, only to find that there was one major problem. "Guys, I can't lift him!" Ludwig grunted.

"Me, neither!" groaned Morton. "It's like he's bolted; stuck; fastened to the ground!"

"Guys, hurry!" Wendy yelled. "The hole's almost here!" Sure enough, the black void was eating and the ground only centimeters from their feet.

Seeing this, the two elderly wizards dragged the eight of them away from their father and into the hallway – which, at this point, wasn't really a hallway at all.

"What are you doing?!" demanded Lemmy. "Let go of me! We need to help King Dad!"

Kamek looked deep into their eyes. "Children," he told them, " _please_ understand. Your father is beyond saving right now. But you are not. You must go – go and preserve the royal line. Dark Land needs leaders. Dark Land needs _you_."

"But what about _us_? _We_ need our father." Ludwig asked. It took a while for the others to realize it, but he was crying. Kamek, however, paid it no heed.

"My boy, I know how it feels to lose a parent. I know you know. And that's why I know you can stay strong. For them." He gestured to Ludwig's younger siblings.

Just then, the wall to their right began to splinter and crack. Kammy cursed. "Great, you big blue idiot, look what you've done! At this rate, we'll never escape the castle alive!"

Kamek stared at his wand for a good while before he seemed to come to a decision. "Maybe we won't," he said in a soft tone, "but they will." With that, the ruby on his wand turned a deep purple, and a half-sphere materialized between the two wizards and the Koopalings. Nine sets of eyes widened.

"This barrier is one that I designed myself. It slows down any magic within it – including time magic. With this, you should have just enough time to escape."

"B-But y-you and K-Kammy... and K-King D-Dad..." Ludwig stammered, at a loss for words.

"The caster must be in the barrier for this spell to work properly," Kamek explained gently. "As for your father – there was always a touch of destiny to that boy... I'm sure that he'll be fine. And as for all of you – please know that whatever trials you must face; no matter how much things change... we all love you very much.

With that, the wizard turned his back to the astounded Koopalings, and they had no choice to run as fast as their legs could carry them – away from their father, their mentors, and their life.

* * *

 **A/N: What? Why are you looking at me like that? ...Oh, you were expecting me to actually follow up on that cliffhanger with the Shadow Queen? lolnope**

 **So, this chapter introduced the Koopalings, favorites for Hurt/Comfort writers everywhere! For those of you who were expecting this chapter to be more emotionally resonant (y'know, aside from the heart-wrenching finale), the reason it is not is because the Koopalings, like all characters, take time to develop.**

 **THIS CHAPTER'S CIPHER:**

 **Yhj bckfrzx ucjn'p iyli**

 **Post your guess in the reviews!**

 **Now, onto the response(s)!**

 **Avalain Nightshade: Yes, one of them is Fawful! (Which you already know after reading this chapter.) The bat king will be appearing soon enough, so no hints there, but the alien princess I'll help you with. Think back to Mario's visions. Remember the one with the UFOs? Those have to do with the alien princess. (Plus, as far as I can remember, there are only two Mario games with UFOs: Super Mario Galaxy, and the game this villain appears in.) That's all the hints I have to give you.**

 **~I Am A Toad**


	10. Bye Bye, Boggly Tree

**So... Chapter 10 already! As such, I find it necessary to tally just how many views I've gotten on my story – a grand total of... (drumroll, please) one thousand, one hundred forty-three views!**

 **DISCLAIMER: I don't own Mario. I probably don't own the jokes in these disclaimers, either. Well, except for maybe this one... maybe.**

* * *

 _Chapter X: Bye-Bye, Boggly Tree_

Everyone present in the cluttered mess that was Professor Frankly's sitting room stared at the panting cloud spirit incredulously. "What?" she questioned. "I-Is there s-something on m-my face?"

This only caused even more staring. Finally, Gonzales Jr. spoke. "Yo, Flurrie, I don't know if you remember this, but you just told us that the Shadow Queen is _alive_. So, I dunno, maybe you could _give us some answers already_!?" The extroverted little Yoshi sat back down on the couch with an exasperated huff, earning an impressed look from Boshi.

"Yeah, I think we all deserve an explanation," came Toadette's voice from behind the actress.

Madame Flurrie took a deep breath as she faced her audience. "I suppose I should start from the very beginning. It was a glorious morning when I decided to take a break from my career in theatre and to pay a visit to my beloved Punies," she exclaimed dramatically. "I decided to take the long way – after all, I needed to look my best if I was to get any roles! And as I strolled through those woods, I began to remember why I gave up my acting job in the first place – to experience the natural beauty and splendor that the world has to offer!"

"Just get to the point already!" interrupted Boshi, earning him a reprimanding glare from Yoshi.

"As you may imagine, I was simply _captivated_ by the loveliness of it all," Flurrie continued, paying no heed to Boshi's demands. "But... it was that very fascination that proved to be my downfall. You see, as I sauntered through that wooded path, I noticed a darkness looming above the Great Tree. Now, normally such a thing would have spurred me into action straightaway, but I simply couldn't distract myself from the otherworldly grace that I cherished so much. As such, I convinced myself that it was just a storm; that it wasn't going to have any negative effects."

She laughed bitterly. "How naïve I was to believe that. When I reached the Great Tree, I immediately noticed there was something wrong. Despite the sun being high in the sky, there was no light there at all – not even from the lightbulbs on the secret entrance sign. Not only that, but the door was locked, as if someone didn't want people to be able to get inside. I had to take that microscopic hole of an entrance to get in!"

"Now that I think about it, she _does_ look skinnier than usual," Gonzales whispered to no one in particular.

"It was even darker inside the Great Tree – I could barely see two feet in front of me! But even with the pitch-blackness, I could tell that I was too late – the Punies were gone. But, being the _heroic_ soul that I am, I decided to go look for the blessed creatures. As I worked my way up the tree, I realized something shocking – all the Jabbies were gone, too, which meant that they weren't to blame. I wondered to myself: if not the Jabbies, who could have possibly done such a thing?"

Boshi sighed in relief. "Finally!"

Flurrie's face darkened. "I found out soon enough. About halfway to the top, I came across someone whose face I never thought I'd see again – the Shadow Queen. Behind her was the most horrible thing – rows upon rows of Punies and Jabbies, just floating there! Suddenly, everything made sense... except for one thing. What _was_ she doing there? Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to question her about that matter, as she promptly ejected me from the Tree." Her face twisted in confusion. "Very unlike her, now that I think about it."

"I thought for her we'd gotten rid of her for good," Goombella remarked. "Huh. I guess not."

"We had," Vivian replied. "I could sense it." Her eyes widened in realization. "So _that's_ what that weird sensation I've been feeling is coming from!"

For the second time that day, Toad slapped himself in the forehead. "You _felt_ the Shadow Queen's presence!?"

The Shadow Siren blushed. "It felt different... like she wasn't really there. To be honest, I just thought I was having some horrible flashback. And... do you even know who the Shadow Queen is? I don't recall you ever being in Rogueport."

"Uh... I know that she's a bad guy," responded Toad.

"Maybe it was Glitch," Peach suggested.

"Hmm... would you mind elaborating?" requested Professor Frankly.

"Well," Peach explained, "we already know that Glitch has some influence over time, considering how it knew how to pull that time-thingy out of the hole. So what if it somehow brought the Shadow Queen back from the dead?"

"What does it need the Crown of Time for, then?" Luigi argued. "I mean, we're already powerless against it."

"Actually," said Frankly, "there _is_ a reason why it may need the Crown of Time. Goombella, would you please explain?"

The aspiring archaeologist nodded. "As some of you know, there are several... er... lost arts in this world. One of the least known is time magic, otherwise known as chronokinesis. Anyways, from what the professor and I could gather from those old, dusty texts, people who were exposed to chronokinesis for long enough formed a special... bond with time. They could feel the natural flow of time, and even alter time a little bit – not enough to change the past, but enough to... resurrect the dead, for instance."

"So," Koopie Koo summarized, "this Glitch freak, who was exposed to the Crown of Time for who-knows-how-long, has enough of a connection with time to bring the Shadow Queen back from oblivion."

"In essence, yeah, pretty much," agreed Goombella.

"But _why_ would it revive the Shadow Queen?" Luigi argued again. "Why can't it just come itself?"

"I... don't exactly know," Peach retorted lamely. "But it's the best explanation we've got. And besides, Flurrie said that the Shadow Queen was making all of the Punies and Jabbies levitate behind her. Doesn't that remind you of a certain creature and what it did to the Yoshis?"

Luigi frowned thoughtfully; she had a point. "But," he debated, "why would she agree to serve Glitch? Wouldn't she just try to eradicate it on the spot?"

Peach grimaced as the memory of Grodus disintegrating into ashes came flooding back to her – made worse by the fact that _she_ had been the one to cause it, despite not being in control of her body. Unfortunately, she did not have a feasible response to Luigi's reasoning.

"Maybe she wants revenge on us," Vivian suggested quietly.

"What do you mean?" Yoshi asked.

"Well," elaborated Vivian, "think about it. Most of us know that the Shadow Queen thinks very highly of herself, so to be defeated by those whom she views as 'lesser beings' would've infuriated her. So by reviving her, this Glitch thing would kill two birds with one stone – it would get its revenge on the Four Heroes, and the Shadow Queen would get the chance to exact her revenge on us."

"I must admit, that _does_ make sense," mused Flurrie. "But none the matter; the Punies are in trouble! And, if the Shadow Queen is working for this Glitch character as you say she is, then wouldn't we be saving the island, too?"

"When you put it like that, it seems stupidly obvious," Goombella remarked.

"Yeah," Luigi concurred.

"I guess that means we're going, then?" questioned Yoshi.

"Yup," affirmed Peach.

As they prepared to leave, Professor Frankly spoke up. "I think I'll stay here. I trust you'll be careful?"

Goombella turned to her mentor with a small smile. "Of _course_ we'll be careful, Professor." And with that, she closed the door.

The elderly Goomba gazed at his now-ruined sitting room with a small grimace. "Young people these days," he muttered to himself as he grabbed a broom. "Have no respect for their elders."

* * *

The journey to the Boggly Tree was rather uneventful, aside from when Larson the Bandit tried to steal Princess Peach's crown, of all things. "Seriously," she complained, "how did he think he was going to take my crown without being seen? There's, like, twenty people here!"

When they reached the aforementioned Tree, the first thing that struck them was how utterly _dark_ it was. Well, with the exception of three people. Flurrie had already expected it to be this dark, and Vivian, being made of shadows, thought it looked perfectly normal. Toadette, meanwhile, being Toadette, immediately turned her focus to how smooth the bark on the Tree's trunk was, somehow missing the fact that there was no light whatsoever.

"So... how are we supposed to get into the Tree if we can't even see five inches in front of us?!" Gonzales Jr. exclaimed.

"My headlight," Goombella responded. "Duh!"

The archaeologist-in-training then somehow flipped the light on her helmet on despite having no arms. However, although the bulb was now colored a dim yellow, there was still no light to be seen.

"Well, that failed spectacularly!" complained Koopie Koo.

Vivian groaned. She'd seen this before, and knew how hard it was for beings of light to get around in this lighting. "You'll all just have to follow me," she declared. She grabbed onto the nearest person's – Boshi's – hand, and announced to the others, "Everyone form a single file line and hold onto the person in front of you!"

After much fumbling and tripping, the line was finally more-or-less organized. "Okay, everyone," Vivian proclaimed, "whatever you do, don't let go of the person in front of you!"

"Yeah, yeah," murmured Boshi from behind her.

They made it through the metal door that marked the entrance to the Tree without incident, aside from the fact that the line was pretty much obsolete after they arrived. As it was, there was a dull green glow that seemed to get stronger farther up the tree.

Vivian, meanwhile, was at a loss for words, and her mouth currently resembled that of a fish. "H-How?" she managed. "This sh-shouldn't be p-possible! N-Nothing sh-should be able t-to pierce Shadow m-magic that strong!"

Boshi shrugged nonchalantly. "Who cares?! At least I don't have to be touched by you and Yoshi anymore!"

The green dinosaur merely rolled his eyes, while Vivian shot him a glare that could've frozen the sun.

"Well, shall we go?" suggested Flurrie airily, completely ignoring the rising tensions in the room.

"Yes, we shall," agreed Peach.

"Wait... did you guys hear something?" Luigi inquired nervously, stopping in his tracks.

"I didn't hear anything," Koops responded.

"I hear it again! Everyone be quiet!" demanded the man in green. The chamber soon fell silent, save for a strange scratching sound.

"I hear it, too," whispered Bobbery. "It's coming from that bush." He gestured towards a lone shrub on the other side of the room.

"I'll see what it is," Ms. Mowz said softly. "Just leave it to me, dearies!" The Squeek thief tiptoed noiselessly across the leafy terrain until she arrived at the bush. In one swift motion, she parted the leaves of the bush, revealing three clearly-frightened insects.

"Punio!" Flurrie shrieked, pushing the others out of the way. "Petuni! Uh... Jabble!" She scooped the trembling insects up into her hands. "Thank goodness you're safe!"

The larger Puni timidly lifted his head. "M-Madame Flurrie? Is that really you?"

"Why, yes it is!" Flurrie answered. "I honestly don't know who else it would be! Now... tell me what happened! How did you escape the Shadow Queen?"

"It was really all thanks to Jabble, here..." Punio gestured to the young Jabbi.

"Yeah, if it wasn't for him, we'd probably have been imprisoned with the others!" The smaller Puni butted in.

"Petuni, it's my story!" Punio chastised, shoving his sister playfully. "Anyway, the Elder was giving me a break from her incessant nagging, and I was playing hide-and-seek with Petuni and Jabble, when suddenly everything went dark, except for this weird, green glow. There was a big crashing noise from the other room, and I remember hearing a lot of screaming. We were going to go help the others, but then Jabble flew to us. Apparently, there was a big, scary monster capturing everybody, and we had to hide."

Suddenly, the Jabbi made a lot of high-pitched buzzing noises, causing Punio to nod his head thoughtfully.

"He says that he caught a glimpse of it when he was trying to find us," he translated. "Anyways, we hid behind a bush, and fortunately, the monster just passed us by. But it had captured everyone! Even the Jabbies!" At this, Jabble made a mournful buzzing sound. "We've been too scared to move ever since!"

"Oh, you poor things!" Flurrie cried. "No wonder I didn't see you with the rest of the Punies when I came here earlier!

"Wait... the big monster _didn't_ eat everybody?" Petuni asked in confusion.

"Heavens, no!" replied the cloud spirit.

"Yeah, instead of being eaten, they'll probably be subjected to all kinds of horrible torture!" Boshi called unhelpfully from behind them.

"Well, whatever the Shadow Queen is doing with them, she won't be for long," Flurrie reassured the insects. "That's why we're here: to stop her. Would you three like to come with us?"

"Yes!" Petuni exclaimed. Jabble nodded in agreement.

"What?" Punio cried. "Why?!"

"Because I said so, that's why," replied the smaller Puni.

Punio rolled his eyes, but other than that, did not complain. "Marvelous!" Flurrie declared. "I trust you three can keep up with us?"

The three insects nodded.

"Alright, then! Let's not waste another second!" And with that, the group set off in pursuit of the Shadow Queen.

However, a certain member of the party felt like something was off. Unable to place her finger on it, she hurried off with the rest of her allies.

* * *

"Are... we... there... yet..." Toadsworth panted. The group had been climbing up the Great Tree's many floors, and had still not reached the top.

"We're almost there, guys! Only fifteen more layers to go!" Punio proclaimed cheerfully. He had been forced by the Elder to make the ascent many times, and was not affected by it in the slightest.

"Why... aren't... there... just... pipes... like... in... the... rest... of... the... Tree...?" Peach groaned.

"Oh, to keep the tourists away," Punio replied nonchalantly. "We can't have people disturbing the eggs, can we?"

It was then that they realized that there were multiple broken eggshells littering the floor.

"You're lucky it's not mating season," added Punio.

"Well... there... goes... my... lunch..." wheezed Koopie Koo.

"Anyways, we're almost there! We only have to climb about 12 more floors!"

Everyone in the chamber immediately began an onslaught of groaning and complaining – the sixth one that day.

The next eleven floors passed by without much incident (although, true to what she had said, Koopie Koo's lunch had been expelled in a most violent manner), and the group found themselves on the same level as the Shadow Queen. It was, rather suitably, quite dark and creepy, despite the afternoon sunlight filtering through the leaves and the green light, which was stronger than ever now.

Punio allowed them a moment to rest before facing the dark monarch, to which they all responded gratefully. Punio himself, however, looked rather fidgety, as if he was doing something horribly wrong.

Noticing this, Peach asked the distressed Puni, "Is something the matter, Punio?"

Punio barely even glanced back at her as he mumbled, "The Elder is going to kill me if she finds out I came here..."

"Why is that?" the concerned princess inquired.

This time, he looked her directly in the eye. "This place... it's sacred to both the Punies and the Jabbies." Seeing Peach's confused look, he continued, "Only Elders or their apprentices can go here. That's because this is the place where we lay our leaders to rest..." He cleared his throat. "Anyways, the point is that I've broken one of our most important rules."

Peach gasped. "So... you mean... none of us are allowed in here?"

The Puni shook his head solemnly. "It goes worse than that. When I told you that the Elder was going to kill me, I wasn't kidding. Bringing outsiders up here is punishable by banishment, or in some cases..." He stopped. He didn't need to finish that sentence.

It was at this point that Petuni decided to make her presence known, along with the fact that she'd been eavesdropping on their conversation the entire time. "Big Brother, don't think like that!" she cried. "Surely the Elder won't punish you for this! It was for the good of the Tree!"

"But... to bring outsiders up here is to risk the destruction of one thousand years of Puni and Jabbi history! Plus, It's not just me who'll get punished! All of them will, too! Including you!"

"None of them will be safe if we hadn't gone up here! Neither will any of the others!"

Punio sighed. "Sometimes I wonder why the Elder chose _me_ as her apprentice..." he muttered despondently.

Petuni gave an exasperated groan; did her Big Brother seriously _not_ get it?! "Because you have a big heart; especially around those you care for. The Elder sees it in you. So do I. I saw it just now when you were worried about everyone being punished. _You_ just need to see it."

A long silence followed. Finally, Punio spoke. "Geez, who knew my little sister could be so wise?" said the Puni with a wry smile.

Inwardly, Peach gave a relieved smile; Punio was back to his usual self. However, on the outside, she put her business face on, for it was about time they got down to what they had intended to do. "Alright, guys," she announced, motioning for the others to come closer, "we need a plan. First off, I'm assuming the Shadow Queen is in that chamber?" She pointed behind her, where a large wall with a tiny hole at the bottom was located.

Punio nodded. "That's where the Warp Pipe back to the bottom of the Tree is located. It disappears once you get out of it, so we should use it only if we have to."

"Okay," Peach said. "Now, we need a way to get in there, without damaging anything here. So, no explosions."

"Actually," Luigi quietly stated, "something just occurred to me. Do any of you find it strange that the Shadow Queen has been here for a very long time, yet she hasn't activated the Center of Distortion?"

Vivian gave a horrified gasp. "I knew something was wrong... How could I have been so stupid...?"

"What do you mean?" inquired Goombella.

"The Shadow Queen... she knows we're here..."

No sooner had she said that than the wall exploded, raining shrapnel on the helpless group. Or at least that would've happened, if they had not suddenly defied the laws of gravity and began hovering ten feet in the air. Unfortunately, they soon found that try as they might, they could not come down again.

"Foolish mortals..." purred the now-visible Shadow Queen. "I cannot be defeated so easily anymore..."

"Hey! Let us go, you witch!" Gonzales Jr. cried. The Queen sauntered over to him leisurely. At was at this moment that quite a few of them realized that something was not quite right about her. Her form was less defined, as if she were an apparition, or she wasn't even there...

"Muh huh huh huh... you amuse me, little Yoshi... I may even keep you as a pet... But alas, I have more important things to do. My... partner... has given me great power, but at a cost. I must do its bidding, and while I would never stoop to obey a lesser being than I..." She paused. "...the enemy of my enemy is my friend."

"So that's why your signature seemed different..." Vivian mused. "Your very essence was warped..."

The Shadow Queen grinned a most malevolent grin. "Very good... It's a shame you _betrayed_ me, little Shadow Siren... We could have done great things... None the matter, for I have more important things to do than speak with the likes of you... such as taking back what are rightfully mine!" She swirled her hand around, and all of a sudden, seven crystalline stars came rushing at her.

"Hey! Give those back!" Goombella cried.

"Muh huh huh huh... did you really think I'd fall for that same trick a second time? I think not!" The Shadow Queen proceeded to turn to the side, revealing a misty green circle that could only be the Center of Distortion.

"Behold... a rip in the fabric of time itself... and the key to the object that will bring this pathetic island to its knees!" She faced the Center of Distortion and began to chant, "Draw rofs ret tele erht... Swodah snideka olcebl lahsel sisiht!" Her body began to glow with a dim, dark green light – which was an odd sight considering she was made of darkness. A chain of ones and zeroes abruptly shot out of the portal. "Yes... the strings of-"

"Yeah, yeah, we get it already!" Boshi impatiently complained. "The strings of time, glowing number, you're gonna snap one near it, everything dies, bla bla bla. Just get to it already!"

"Yes, spare us the boredom," Toad agreed vehemently. "I've had enough of that for one day."

For a brief second, the Shadow Queen looked stunned by the interruption, but her surprised expression was quickly replaced by a triumphant smirk. "Well... I had no idea you wanted to die so quickly. Very well, then. Prepare to be vanquished!"

Her eyes glowed ruby-red, and a bolt of lightning was suddenly produced, accompanied by the deafening sound of thunder. As soon as the blinding white light subsided, it became clear what had happened. Where a good chunk of the strand had been, there was nothing but ashes where the lightning had struck.

The effects were the same as always – the strand slowly turned into colorless dust before fading into oblivion. After all that was said and done, a black void started from the tip of the remaining string. What was different, however, was the speed of the void. While it was never the fastest to begin with back on Yoshi's Island, it was quite literally expanding at a snail's pace.

Upon noticing this, the Shadow Queen was, understandably, quite irked. In fact, she probably would have incinerated them right on the spot if not for the fact that they were (eventually) doing to be erased from existence anyway.

"Well," she mused to herself, "the Tree is still collapsing." She turned to her prisoners. "Very well. I have decided to _not_ destroy you all by exposing you to extreme levels of heat and electricity. Instead, I have decided that it is my best interest for you to stay here and be deleted from reality. Mostly, if not entirely due to the fact that you will still go to the afterlife if I incinerate you, and, though I am loathe to admit it, it is highly likely that you will all end up in the Overthere." She grimaced at the mention of Grambi's realm. "Goodbye forever, silly Heroes!" With that, she disappeared.

The party immediately felt themselves falling as soon as the demonic queen left. "Quick! Over here!" Punio called. "The pipe seems to be active! We can get out of here before the Tree collapses!"

Right as he announced that, the Shadow Queen decided to appear there once more. "Oh right, one more thing." She struck the pipe with lightning, rendering it useless (due to the fact that it was now nothing more than a pile of ash). "Have fun dying! Muh huh huh huh!" She teleported away once more.

"We're all doomed!" Punio cried. "At this rate, we'll never be able to escape the Tree in time!"

Luigi gazed toward the exit. "Not quite," he said. "If we hurry, we just might make it!"

"But we'll have debris raining down on us! We'll be crushed, and then swallowed by that void!"

At the mention of being swallowed by the abyss, the memory of Mario, helpless and pinned beneath the pillar, sprang to the forefront of Luigi's mind. "Not this time," he mumbled. In a louder voice, he announced, "We can use any holes caused by the collapsing to our advantage. If we drop down them, we can skip several floors!"

Peach nodded. "Good idea. But... is it just me, or is there a floating wall forming there?"

They all glanced behind them. Sure enough, a solid chunk of wood was growing in the middle of the air.

"It's from before the Great Tree was hollowed out," Goombella realized. "Guys, we have to get out of here NOW!"

The others needed no urging. Avoiding the slowly growing wall, they scrambled down to the floor below it, only to find that there were more walls growing.

"We're not going fast enough!" wailed Ms. Mowz.

"Negativity won't get us anywhere!" Yoshi exclaimed. "Now, come on!"

They made their way down the floors, with the walls becoming thicker and thicker with each level. It got to the point where they had to go single file to even pass through.

"Ms. Mowz was right; this isn't working!" cried Koops.

"Agreed," concurred Bobbery. "We need a new plan."

"Um... I have an idea," Vivian suggested. She snapped her fingers, and a tiny fire appeared in the palm of her fingers. "I could use my fire powers to burn through the Tree."

"No!" Punio protested. "If you burn down the Tree, what will that mean for us?"

"If we don't," Gonzales Jr. argued, "there won't be an 'us!'"

"Guys, I'm going to do it!" called Vivian. With a wave of her hand, the entire wall was engulfed in flames.

At first, Vivian's plan worked brilliantly. Aside from a few problems with smoke inhalation (including an incident where Jabble fell fast asleep), it seemed they might actually make it out in one piece. However, the fires became so intense that they were starting to a). cause the now-flaming debris to rain down faster, and b). give the void a chance to catch up with them. (It had been so slow to begin with, Goombella had hypothesized, due to the fact that the Goomba hero of legend had hollowed out the Tree.)

"I think we just have to jump!" Luigi cried over the raging inferno.

Peach gazed at him as though he'd just told her to join the Shadow Queen. "Jump?! Are you crazy?!"

"We need to get out of here before the entire Tree collapses on us!" argued the man in green. "Look; the trunk is becoming really unstable!" Sure enough, what little of the Tree was managing to hold up against Vivian's fire was now wobbling dangerously due to the lack of wood to hold it up. "Besides, it's not that far down!"

Peach reluctantly nodded.

"Okay," announced Luigi, "we jump on my command! One!" He took a deep breath. "Two!" He prepared for the leap. "Three!" As one, the group vaulted off the edge. And just in time, too, for as they did that, the top of the Tree gave out and tumbled into the mostly-intact lower section.

"Ow..." Koopie Koo moaned. "I think I twisted my ankle..."

Luigi cursed, which was a rare occurrence. If Koopie Koo (or anyone else) was injured, then they might not be able to escape the hole, which was now expanding at its normal rate. "Okay, Yoshi," he instructed, "I need you to carry Koopie Koo. Is anyone else injured?"

"I do believe I've done the same," offered Toadsworth.

Luigi nodded. "Okay. Gonzales, you take him. Is that everyone?"

Nobody responded.

Luigi heaved a sigh of relief. "Okay everyone, get into the Blue Pipe. We need to get back to Rogueport, pick up Professor Frankly, and find a way out of here!"

The Blue Pipe had almost completely collapsed by the time they got back to Rogueport Sewers. Except... the Rogueport Sewers weren't exactly sewers anymore. While all of the old landmarks were still there, the modern town had completely disappeared, replaced by the town that had been before the Shadow Queen arrived.

However, they didn't have time to take in their slowly-disintegrating surroundings, as they were immediately tackled by one livid Goomba. "What in the name of Grambi is going on here?" Frankly demanded.

Everyone stepped aside, leaving Goombella alone to answer the question. "Uh... well... y'see..." she stammered, "the Shadow Queen kinda set time back by 10,000 years..."

Frankly opened his mouth to respond, but Luigi cut him off before he could. "Guys, we have bigger problems to worry about – the void's almost here!" Sure enough, the majority of the time-consuming abyss was visible from where they stood. "Does anyone have any way to get out of here?"

"I have a way," Bobbery piped up. "Follow me, everyone!"

Eventually, they found themselves at the Blue Pipe that led to Keelhaul Key. "Everyone, get in!" Bobbery commanded.

Due to its rather secluded location, Keyhaul Key remained virtually the same, except for the fact that the small settlement (and its inhabitants) were nowhere to be found. As a result, this made finding their way to what used to be (or would be) the docks that much easier.

"Cortez's ship!" breathed Vivian. "Of course!"

"Wait, but... how is it not being obliterated like everything else?" pondered Ms. Mowz.

"We don't have time for this!" Bobbery cried. Turning to the ship, he called, "Cortez! I have a favor to ask of you!"

A floating skull that could only be Cortez descended from the ship. "Of course," he said. "Anything for you, amigo. And don't even tell me what you need; I already know." He gestured toward the mainland, where the black void was growing larger still. "The crew and I were about to set sail; we were just waiting to see if you'd show up."

"Wonderful!" exclaimed Bobbery. "Climb on aboard, everybody!"

As they sailed away from the cursed island, Vivian couldn't help but stare back at the black void that had consumed nearly everything she had ever known. "I hope Beldam and Marilyn are okay," she mumbled numbly.

Goombella came to comfort her distressed friend. "I'm sure they'll be fine."

"I hope so."

* * *

As the Floating City crumbled, Jolene had only one thing on her mind: finding her brother. She chuckled grimly to herself at how Jaydes was probably laughing at her from the Underwhere. Had the chaos started at anytime other than this, she might not been in this predicament; she and Mush might already be safely out of Glitzville. But _nooo_ , Mush just had to be on his break when the city had started to collapse.

As she raced out of the disintegrating Glitz Pit, Jolene noticed how she was one of the only ones left on the floating island. All of the tourists had already fled on the blimps. As she looked around at all the remaining possible places, another lurch signaled she was running out of time.

"If I were Mush, where would I go?" She surveyed her surroundings once more, and focused on the Juice Bar. The faintest of smiles found its way onto her lips. Mush was always up for a swig of Chockola Cola.

Her intuitions proved correct, as she found her younger brother huddled in the corner, sobbing. Honestly, for a former Glitz Pit champion, he could be such a baby. "Mush!"

Prince Mush looked up. "Jolene! Why are you still here? You should've escaped while you had the chance!"

"Without you? No way! Now come on, I'm getting us out of here!" Jolene yanked her brother up and began dragging him out of the Juice Bar as another quake started.

As they ran through the deserted halls of the Pit, Jolene found herself wondering about what could possibly cause such devastation. A malfunction seemed extremely unlikely; Glitzville had stayed aloft for over seventy-five years without any complications. Besides, that didn't explain why the buildings themselves were disappearing.

In fact, she was so lost in thought that she bumped right into the huge mass of feathers and arrogance that called itself Rawk Hawk. A glance behind him showed that he was being accompanied by two of the minor league fighters, Bandy Andy and KP Pete.

"Rawk Hawk, Andy, Pete," she inquired, "what are you guys doing here?"

"That idiot behind me told us that there was an extra blimp here in the Pit! But we haven't found it, and now we're trapped!" Rawk Hawk responded.

Bandy Andy laughed nervously. "What? You can't expect _all_ of the things I hear to be true!"

"What are you two doing here, anyway?" KP Pete inquired.

"The same reason you are," Jolene replied matter-of-factly. "The extra blimp."

"See? I told you it was true!" bragged Andy.

"In fact, we've just about arrived at it."

Rawk Hawk looked around himself. "Huh? I don't see no blimp."

Jolene smiled. "You just need to know..." She placed her hand on one of the only walls that remained intact. "...where to look." The wall retreated into the floor (which was ironic, as another lurch completely destroyed the wall adjacent to it at that exact moment) to reveal a blimp bearing the Glitz Pit logo on it. "Hop in, boys."

The four fighters did that, followed by Jolene. Soon, they were off. Just in time, too, as Jolene looked out to see what remained of Glitzville collapsing into what appeared to be a black void of nothingness. She sighed. They were safe.

* * *

Two figures stood facing a black void. One was short and skinny, the other rather large in both height and girth.

"Do you feel it, Marilyn?" said the first one.

"Guh."

"You're right. If the Shadow Queen is back, we must investigate at once."

"Guh-huh?"

"I'm sure Vivian's safe. I can sense her, and she is not still on the island. Now, my lovely! Let us go!"

With that, the two figures sunk into the shadows.

* * *

 **A/N: So, for the tenth chapter, what did I do? Burn the Boggly Tree, completely destroy Rogueport _and_ Glitzville, and leave the protagonists without any way to save Mario. I mean sure, it's not as emotional as last chapter, but it _is_ pretty grim.**

 **Oh yeah, and school's starting (as most of you probably know), and I won't have as much time to update! So expect chapters to be released with no real schedule! Not that there ever was one...**

 **Oh, and I changed the description! So that's a thing...**

 **THIS CHAPTER'S CIPHER:**

 **Qhaw fkdswhu: Pdulr wdnhv ioljkw!**

 **Now, onto the reviews!**

 **Avalain Nightshade: Yeah, I'll be starting school too, so my _chapters_ might be late!**

 **~I Am A Toad**


	11. From The Inside (And The Outside)

**Well, I have some explaining to do, don't I? See, I was going to get this out about a month ago, but then we began learning about how to really improve our character development in my English class. So I thought, _Ooh, awesome! Tips for my fanfic and other related writing activities!_ And now here we are. **

**Oh yeah, and I've also decided to discontinue the ciphers, because writing a chapter is hard enough as it is.**

 **Thanks to thegeniusyoshi and icey5mat for following/favoriting!**

 **DISCLAIMER: I do not own Mario. Neither do any of you reading this. Let us now revel in our insignificance.**

* * *

 _Chapter XI: From The Inside (And The Outside)_

It wasn't all a bad dream. That was the first thing the man in red realized as he woke up on the beach that he knew all too well, yet didn't at all. He _was_ still stranded on the island. His friends were probably dead, or worse, wiped from existence. And now nobody could rescue him because he was stuck within a time that wasn't his own.

Still, Mario knew that moping around wasn't going to do anything about his current predicament. He decided to try and figure out what to do next. There was no use looking for more food; he still had plenty of the strange brown mushrooms in his pocket. Looking for water would be pointless, too; he had seen several small brooks as he had crawled through the forest.

 _What about that golden thing?_ Mario pondered. The last thing he remembered was touching the shard, hearing that strange voice, and then... nothing. Where was it, anyways? He looked behind him, and saw that it was right where he left it, half-buried in the dunes.

"Would it really be a good idea to touch it again?" he wondered aloud. His mind struggled to come to a resolution. On the one hand, that thing had come from the Invertebreye, and he had seen plenty of cases of ordinary people being corrupted by extremely powerful objects. What if the same thing happened to him? On the other hand, he had touched it once, and nothing had happened. What was the harm in trying again?

Eventually, his reason overcame his fear, and he approached the shard. Slowly, he reached out to touch it. His gloves made contact with the object, and... nothing happened. He plucked the shard out of the sand and examined it more closely. He frowned. "Well, that was a bit anticlimactic..." He suddenly shot five yards into the air. "Whoa!"

"What the..." he breathed as he gazed at himself. His entire being was glowing with an icy blue light, and it seemed to be emanating from the shard. _So that's how the worm was able to fly..._ Mario realized.

"So, as long as I hold this, I can travel wherever I want... cool! Now, how does this work..." He spent a good five minutes try to figure out how to fly, before getting incredibly frustrated. "Come on, stupid thing, I just want to go _up!_ " As if responding to his command, the shard suddenly shot even higher into the air, with him in tow.

Mario looked at the golden object. "Oh. That's... actually pretty convenient." His mouth twisted into a small frown once he realized he was still going up. "Uh… can this thing even stop?" Immediately, he stopped gaining elevation and resumed his hovering. He allowed himself a grin. "Cool."

The red plumber last track of time as he practiced his flying. Not that he needed much practice, anyways; for reasons unbeknownst to him, soaring with the shard just felt inherently… right to him. Perhaps it was because he had flying experience before, but for whatever reason, he didn't think that was it. He normally didn't like flying; something about going into the air and not coming back down didn't sit well with him. But not so with whatever magical artifact he was holding – once he had gotten the basic controls down, it was as if some part of his soul that he had never known of had been unlocked; as if he was seeing the world for the first time. And once he got that feeling, he never wanted it to end.

That is, until he remembered what he should have been doing. "Wait a minute… I can fly now! I can use this to find my friends!" he declared excitedly. He quickly descended, landing on the dunes with a soft _thump_.

Instantaneously, the blissful feeling he'd had ever since he had begun flying left him. Instead, Mario felt as though he needed to get back up into the sky right that instant, as if his life depended on it. Suddenly, without any warning, his feet began to lift off the ground. "What the… no!" He willed himself to touch back down. He now felt rather queasy. "Okay," he told himself. "I'll just pack some water and some food, then I'll be off. It'll just be an hour… just an hour until I start flying again…" he muttered dreamily.

To Mario, it felt like an eternity before he was able to acquire all of the necessary provisions to make the trip over the ocean. But finally, _finally,_ he was ready. He barely had to give the command for him to shoot above Yoshi's Island. No more being stuck on the ground for him… this was flight; this was true freedom, and it was _amazing._ He allowed himself a joyful laugh. This feeling… it was so wonderful that it almost made him forget what he was supposed to be doing… almost. Wait, what _was_ he supposed to be doing?

He hovered there, confused, for a few seconds, before rapidly blinking and realizing the weight of what had just happened. He had nearly forgotten about his mission; his friends; his _family_ , all because he couldn't control his impulse to just forget about everything else... and just... fly...

Mario shook his head. He looked at the artifact, and to his horror noticed that the hand that held it was out of focus and blurry. Almost like...

 _No,_ he assured himself. _No, it's impossible_. There was no way he was becoming like Glitch. Glitch was pure evil, and Mario was the one who fought for the forces of good at any cost. _But are we really that different?_

He shook those thoughts out of his head. His time stranded on the island must've really been getting to him. Besides, if not for the magical golden artifact, how else was he going to find his friends? He laughed once more, but it was much more nervous than before.

He glanced at the sun, which, in this desolate time period, was no longer slightly obscured by the smoke and smog of the modern world. It was nearly evening, and he had been wasting time. He couldn't afford to dillydally on the island anymore – not when he knew that a minute squandered could mean the difference between success and failure.

"Okay..." he muttered, "where would they have gone?" There were several areas his friends could have fled to for aid, but the most likely answer was Isle Delfino. He supposed they could have gone to Dark Land, or even to Pi'illo Island to the east, but Delfino was the closest island to the mainland that actually _had_ an airport.

Of course, there was the question if he could even pass the barrier, but that was another matter entirely. He'd figure that out once he got there.

"Alright... let's a-go!" With that, he flew to the west, in the direction of where his allies had most likely gone.

Time passed, and soon Mario felt himself becoming tired. Tired, and yet full of energy. _It must be my shard,_ he mused whilst yawning. Huh. He must've been more sleepy than he knew, despite feeling like he could run a mile without breaking a sweat. _I'm sure I can just take a quick... nap..._ His eyelids began to edge downwards, and soon, he was snoring, with the crown guiding him along. But not towards his destination. It was pulling him off course – away from Delfino Airstrip and to another island, where its brother awaited: Rogueport.

* * *

Deep in the halls of what would eventually come to be known as Bowser's Castle, two Dark Koopatrols dragged their prisoner into the dungeons.

And their prisoner was not being very cooperative.

"I said, let me go! Your king demands it!" roared one King Bowser Koopa IV. After being sucked in by the void, he had awoken to find that the he had been trapped in had melted (which was good), and that he was now being bound by some sort of magical energy barrier (which was not so good).

The Dark Koopatrols didn't even acknowledge him as they strolled further into the fortress that Bowser knew so well and yet didn't at all. _Strange,_ he thought as he admired the architecture, _that such an awesome castle would be built in the exact same place as_ my _even awesome-r castle._

He thought back to what he knew about his castle. His great-great-grandfather and namesake, King Bowser Koopa I, had discovered the amazing fortress in ruins. With the help of his army, he had renovated the castle until it had reached its present state. Except... from what he had gathered from Fawful's grammatically challenged speech, he was now a _long_ time into the past, which meant that this was probably the original fortress.

He tried one more time to convince the guards to set him free. However, being, well, himself, this meant a lot of fire-spitting, roaring, and just general rudeness. Eventually, he gave it up as he came to the realization that no matter how hard he tried, nobody could hear him while he was in the barrier.

After a long while, they arrived at what Bowser assumed were the dungeons. His guess was proven correct, as one of the Dark Koopatrols flicked a lever, opening one of the sets of iron bars and revealing a rather small prison cell. They promptly led him into the cell, then walked back out and shut the gate.

Immediately, the barrier between Bowser and the outside world dissolved. He took this opportunity to give the soldiers a piece of his mind. "Hey," he howled, "what do you think you're doing?! I am your king! If you value your lives, you will let me out this instant!"

The two guards turned to face him simultaneously. "No," they said in monotonic, robotic voices, "you are nothing. You are weak. You failed as a king. You failed as a husband." At this, Bowser's eyes widened. He had never told anyone about the circumstances of his wife's death, not even his most trusted advisors. "You failed as a father."

His eyes narrowed. "You take that back right now, you traitors!" he snarled through gritted teeth.

The Dark Koopatrols did not react. "Stay here while we fetch Lord Fawful." With that, they turned around, and made their exit.

"No! Come back here! Or so help me, I'll-" He punched the bars, and immediately jerked his hand back. "Ow! What the heck?" His knuckles were now an angry red, and smoke was being produced from them.

"Okay, seriously?! Who enchants their prison cells to burn whoever touches them?" he ranted to nobody in particular.

"Glitch, or maybe the new owner of this here castle," replied somebody in particular.

The Koopa King whirled around, only to find himself face to face with possibly the oldest-looking Boo he'd ever seen. "Gah! When'd you get here?!"

"Eeyehehe!" wheezed the ghost. "I didn't mean to scare ya! And I've been here for decades! Unfortunately, the curse that dang Glitch put on this here cell stopped me from going down to the Underwhere, so I've been forced to spend eternity here."

 _Glitch..._ he'd heard that name somewhere before. Probably something Fawful had said. Bowser decided to find out the truth. "Who's Glitch?"

The elderly spirit erupted into laughter once more. "I'd forgotten how hilarious ya livin' folk are! How could ya _not_ know what Glitch is?!"

"Just humor me," Bowser grunted.

"Well, if ya insist," the Boo managed between random spurts of giggles. "Glitch... it's been ravaging these lands for ages, now." He had suddenly adopted a more serious demeanor. "It came out of nowhere, but legend has it that it's the result of all the hatred and negativity that's built up over the years. Others say it's a byproduct of all of the time magic we've been using, or the result of an experiment gone wrong. Whatever the case, it stole the Crown of Time, and used it for its own malicious purposes."

"Uh... what's the Crown of Time?" the Koopa King inquired, feeling a bit stupid. Of course, this was nothing new to him, but he still hated it.

"Wow! Ya've seriously been livin' under a rock, haven't ya?" exclaimed the ghost. "Well, whatever! A'int my problem! Anyways, let's just say that the Crown of Time is the key to controlling the universe, and ya do _not_ want it fallin' into the wrong hands. Or, in this case, Glitch's hands. It used the Crown to take over the world, wiping anyone who opposed it off the face of existence itself. I, myself, was lucky enough to stay locked up in these dungeons, no matter how much I've suffered. Anyhow, a couple of... I dunno, hours, I guess, ago, some guards came to the dungeons with a new arrival. He was unlike anything I've ever seen before. He had green skin, for one, and he was wearing these swirly doohickeys over his eyes. He said he would enjoy watching my pain like he enjoys mayonnaise, or something."

"Fawful," Bowser growled. "I should've known that the little rat wasn't behind all of this." A thought occurred to him. "Wait," he said to the Boo, "can you control time without the Crown of Time?"

"Well..." began the Boo, "I suppose if you're exposed to pure time long enough, then yes, you could possible have limited control over it. Or, someone with time powers could bestow limited magic upon someone else. I think. Don't quote me on that, by the way."

Before Bowser could respond, maniacal cackling filled the room. "Oh, Stars," muttered Bowser. "It's Fawful."

"Yeah... I think I'll leave this to you..." said the Boo before fading out of existence.

"What? Oh, come on!" Bowser yelled. "I don't want to face him all alone! Come back!"

Fawful chose that moment to arrive. "Well, well, well, well, well, well, well! Unless my eyes have the deception, it would appear that the Bowser who I hate has had the craziness faster than I thought!" chortled the Beanish.

" _You're_ the crazy one if you think you _or_ your master can win this," Bowser snarled. "Just you wait, I'm going to get out of here, kick your butt, and send your sorry face back to the deepest circle of the Underwhere. If not me, then the Mario Brothers will."

"My, someone has the grumpiness today," retorted Fawful. "But yes, Fawful has the agreement. You had the victory before, but... you also had the hand that is higher. But now... you have the locked up-ness, and Fawful is standing here, gloating at you like a child gloats at a... smaller... child..."

Bowser raised an eyebrow.

Fawful gave Bowser a strained smile. "Excuse Fawful for a moment." He turned on his guards. "Fawful _told_ you that you should've had the writing of Fawful's similes and metaphors down!"

"We are sorry, Lord Fawful," the Dark Koopatrols responded with little to no emotion. "We, as humble servants ask for your forgiveness."

The Beanish sniffed. "Fawful shall think about it. Anyways, back to the Koopa King that I hate!" He proceeded to resume his speech. "Not only that, but the Glitch of greatness has told me great secrets, like a little bird whispering its song of beauty into my ear. It has told me that Fawful can have the breaking of your body... or the breaking of your spirit." The villain's eyes filled with maniacal glee. "Naturally, Fawful had no choice but to have the breaking of your spirit after our... issues in the past. Let us have the commencing immediately!"

Bowser gulped. That didn't sound good.

* * *

Five minutes and another magical barrier later, and they arrived in what Bowser could only assume was Fawful's throne room. Well... it wasn't exactly a "throne room." It seemed to be more like the central headquarters of the building. On the far wall was a giant monitor, and in the middle of the room was a control panel of some sort.

"Welcome, King Bowser who I hate!" Fawful motioned for Bowser to come in. "Welcome to Fawful's room of controlling! Fawful has delight for you to be here! Yes, Fawful has delight because it is here that Fawful will get his sweet revenge on you! Fawful shall have the breaking of your spirit, until you are little more than a hollow shell of the sadness, like an empty bottle of mustard!"

Bowser seemed unimpressed. "Uh-huh. You do realize that it's pretty much impossible to 'break my spirit,' right? I mean, I don't want to brag, (well, actually, I do,) but the only emotion I can actually feel is anger, and maybe frustration," he gloated.

Fawful leaned as close as he could to the that separated Bowser from the outside world, giving the Koopa King the most false smile he could possibly give him. "Oh, but we both know that is lacking in truth," he said through gritted teeth. "Fawful knows that you do not have the amount of toughness as you say you do. And Fawful knows how to make you admit it, too. Have the showing of him!" he shrieked to the Dark Koopatrols.

Yes, Lord Fawful," they answered robotically. They flicked a couple of switches, and the large screen on the wall flickered to life. Bowser squinted to see it, and with a gasp of surprise realized that it displayed _his_ castle, from _his_ time. And from the looks of it, the void was still consuming it.

"Behold, King Bowser who I hate," Fawful declared, "footage from 10,000 years in the future – prerecorded and transmitted here via the magic of time itself!"

Once again, Bowser gasped – not only due to Fawful's somewhat grammatically sentence, but also because he could faintly hear voices amidst the ruckus that was presumably being caused by the void. And he knew those voices.

"The castle's collapsing way too fast! At this rate, we'll never make it!" wailed one of the voices. Bowser instantly recognized it as belonging to Iggy Koopa.

Suddenly, the speakers came into view. Despite only having seen them thirty minutes ago (or so it felt), Bowser couldn't help but be appalled at how haggard they appeared to be, both physically and emotionally.

Several of the Koopalings had minor cuts and bruises adorning their skin, and Roy appeared to have sustained a moderate wound to his leg, presumably from the falling debris. In addition, Ludwig, Lemmy, and Junior all had tear tracks running down their cheeks, and the others looked dangerously close to that.

"Iggy's right," Lemmy said, his voice trembling. "At this rate, especially with Roy's injury, we'll never make it outside."

"I _told_ you I was fine, runt," snarled Roy.

"No, you're not, Roy," Lemmy insisted.

"I-" Roy began to protest, but his voice was cut of by a resounding _crash!_ from behind them, sealing the hall behind them.

"The destruction is getting faster," Ludwig realized. "We need to hurry! Morton, help me carry Roy!"

However, before they could do anything, a chunk of the ceiling crashed down in front of them, effectively trapping them in the corridor.

"Oh, no!" shrieked Wendy. "We're trapped! What do we do?"

"I-I don't know!" Ludwig cried.

"Well, you better know soon, because the void's coming!" Roy growled.

"It's not coming; it's here!" informed Larry. Sure enough, the abyss was slowly but surely sucking away the passage behind them.

"We're cornered!"

"Ahh!"

"Help!"

Then, static. It was at this point that Bowser realized that there were tears streaming down his face. "You monster," he whispered to Fawful.

Fawful gave him a decidedly un-Fawfulish grin. "Oh... but Fawful is not the one who had the standing by and had the abandonment of his family. So tell Fawful, King Bowser Koopa... who is the real monster?

* * *

The Star Spirits stared in horror at the mess their world was in. The sacred magic of time was in disarray, and though it wasn't generally known, they were the guardians of _all_ of the magic in the world – not just wishes and dreams.

"I just don't understand how this is possible," muttered Misstar, twirling her ribbon around what could've been her hand until it looked just about ready to tear. "The Heroes sealed away the secrets of time magic 10,000 years ago after the... incident."

"Well, my dear," responded Skolar, "my research indicates that though the Crown and the beast were sealed away, the means to utilize the magic were not completely lost."

"...What?" inquired Misstar, raising an entirely metaphorical eyebrow.

"What Skolar is trying to say," elaborated Klevar, "is that the secrets of time magic still remain in the world."

"Precisely," agreed Skolar. "And it appears that somehow, the great beast has returned to this world. In addition, it seems that it is already... reclaiming its territory."

"Not only that," Klevar added, "but the beast appears intent on exacting its revenge on the Heroes."

"Speaking of the Heroes," interrupted Mamar, "where are they?"

"Well, let us find out," said Eldstar, closing his eyes. "Let's see... Heart and Will are together... that is good. They appear to have seven objects of power with them, which will allow their allies to enter any barriers they come across. They are headed towards Force, which is fortunate, as he is in a... tricky situation. As for Mind... oh, dear." The elderly spirit opened his eyes.

"What?" asked Misstar.

Eldstar took a deep breath. "Mind... he is in possession of the Crown."

"The entire thing?" whispered Skolar.

"No... just a shard. But... I fear it is enough to turn him. The process has already begun. And... when these Heroes have such a mixture of each other's personalities, and have such darkness within them... they are especially susceptible."

"He is strong," Kalmar assured. "I have confidence he will not give in. Now, back to the beast."

"Ah, yes, the beast," murmured Eldstar. "It has summoned six minions, all of whom seem to have grudges against the Heroes. It has also taken Yoshi's Island, Rogueport, and is in the process of taking Darkland. All of these locations are in close proximity to the Crown's shards, which is why the Centers of Distortion have opened there. Its other minions are headed to the other Centers. The beast itself is hiding in a dimension of its own that is locked from the inside."

"What should we do?" Misstar asked.

"Might I propose sending that one Star Sprite to intercept the villains and aid the Heroes?" Klevar proposed. "You know, the peppy one."

"Ah, yes, Starlow," agreed Eldstar. "Yes, sending her would be an excellent idea, as she has ties to all four Heroes, especially Will, Mind, and Heart."

"By that logic, we should send Twink, too," suggested Skolar. "He has ties to Will and Mind."

"Yes. We shall send Twink, as well." Eldstar told them.

"Sending those two would be all well and good," interrupted Muskular, "but they would have no one to protect them."

"Well, then, we shall send !?, as well," decided Eldstar.

"Shall I call for the three of them?" requested Mamar.

"Yes, you go do that," Eldstar agreed.

Sometime later, the seven Stars watched as the odd trio descended to the Mushroom World, knowing that the fate of the world was at stake.

* * *

 **A/N: Well, I actually liked this chapter, up until the last paragraph. Also, leave me a review telling me if you know** _ **who**_ **!?** **is! (Hint: His name has four letters, and starts with a G.)**

 **Anyways, I hope y'all liked how much exposition was put into the chapter. I wonder what's going to happen with Mario... Oh, wait! I already** _ **know**_ **what's going to happen! Also, we get a look at what's happening with Bowser and the Koopalings! So that's pretty cool.**

 **Review time!**

 **wintercandymints: Da da da da! You got a Bowser!**

 **~I Am A Toad**


	12. The Storm

**I have no legitimate excuse for why this is so late.**

 **DISCLAIMER: I do not own Mario, just like I don't own Zelda, or Metroid, or Sonic, or Middle-Earth, or Bill Cipher, or anything whatsoever. (Except for my fanfictions. Kinda.)**

* * *

 _Chapter XII: The Storm_

The waves gently lapped against the sides of the ship as Luigi set his gaze on the vast ocean, illuminated by the soft glow of the setting sun. It had been a week since he and the rest of his friends had set sail from Rogueport, and not a day went by where any of them didn't think about what they had lost. Luigi, in particular, often found himself lost in thought, unable to keep his mind off of his brother's untimely demise.

...Which was a tad unfortunate, considering that it was his turn to be on lookout duty. As it was, Yoshi had been trying to get his attention for a good five minutes already. "Luigi... Luigi... LUIGI!"

"Gah!" Luigi cried, startled.

Yoshi raised an eyebrow, giving the impression that he was unimpressed, although in reality he was rather concerned for his friend.

"Sorry," Luigi muttered sheepishly. "I must've been really out of it this time, huh?"

"Don't apologize, Luigi," reassured the dinosaur. "We all know how hard this must be for you."

Luigi smiled.

"But," Yoshi continued, "you can't just shut us out like this anymore. We're your friends, Luigi. We can help. We _want_ to help."

"Yeah, I guess so," Luigi sighed.

"Well, I _know_ so," said Yoshi. "Now, go get some rest. Toadsworth prepared dinner belowdeck."

"Hey, Yoshi?" Luigi called once he was on the deck once more. "Thanks."

Yoshi nodded. "No problem."

In stark contrast to the serene beauty of the outside, the scene inside the ship was absolute chaos, mostly due to a cockroach that had managed to survive the destruction of the island.

Several people were standing on the tables, and the others were chasing the insect around the tables in the world's most ridiculous game of cat-and-mouse.

"Eep!" Peach shrieked from her spot on a table. "Kill it with fire!"

Apparently, Vivian took that seriously, because orange flames appeared in the palm of her glove, and she began lobbing fireballs at the cockroach.

Consequently, all of these fireballs happened to hit Boshi, who had been leading the comical chase. "What is wrong with you!?" he exclaimed. "You're melting my beautiful wristbands with your fire!" As such, he abandoned the cockroach to chase after Vivian, who simply teleported into his shadow.

Meanwhile, Punio was attempting to make contact with the roach while also not getting crushed. This was made especially hard after Petuni decided that it would be a good idea to jump down from the table and ride the cockroach like a horse, causing it to go even faster.

Consequently, the others were now faced with the problem of how to kill the cockroach while sparing the Puni. Eventually, Toadette resorted to chucking a spoonful of her applesauce at the two insects.

Predictably, it missed and hit her brother in the face. Equally predictably, he wiped the applesauce off of his face and lobbed it back at her. Soon, everyone forgot about their original goal of catching the cockroach, and the meals Toadsworth had so lovingly prepared were now splatted against the walls and the floor.

...But it hardly mattered, as the elderly Toad had been knocked unconscious by a stray turkey leg. Either that, or he fainted at the sight of the erupting war. No one knew (or cared) which was true.

Naturally, the green-clad plumber chose that exact moment to enter the dining area. His eyes widened upon viewing the chaotic scene before him. "Uh... should I be worried?"

As soon as he spoke, everybody froze in their tracks. For a while, nobody said a word. It was Flurrie who finally broke the silence. "Oh... Luigi," she chuckled nervously. "We were just... cleaning up dinner!" The actress promptly began to blow all of the debris in the direction of the trash can. The others followed suit.

After a good five minutes of cleaning, the chamber finally looked presentable-ish again. After seeing that Luigi was still standing in the doorway uncertainly, Peach told him, "We saved some food for you in the galley!"

"Yeah," Luigi nodded awkwardly.

To the immense relief of Toadsworth (when he had woken up, nobody knew) no more food fights manifested that evening, and they were all able to retire safely and peacefully to their quarters.

As there was not enough space to fit all nineteen of them in separate rooms (although the three insects didn't really count), Cortez had tried to divide them evenly among the five chambers that had once been used for his crew. As it was, Luigi had to share a room with Yoshi, who was outside, and Koops. Not that he minded; Yoshi was one of his closest friends and allies and though he didn't know Koops all that well, he seemed to be one of those people who seemed incapable of being mean.

He was also apparently a very heavy sleeper, as immediately after he crashed onto his hammock he began to snore. Luigi wished he could say the same for himself, but despite what Yoshi had told him, he still wasn't ready to spill all of his feelings. Especially not after the horrible nightmares he'd begun to have ever since leaving Rogueport...

Eventually, though, he drifted off to sleep.

* * *

He found himself in a very familiar location: Toad Town. But it was not the same Toad Town he was used to. It was cloaked in darkness, and everything was eerily deserted. Trash was strewn across the ground, and the stench of death wafted through the air.

Suddenly, the ground began to rumble. Peach's castle began to collapse. Its walls imploded, its spires dissolved, and its once vibrant pink color quickly faded to gray. Luigi screamed as a pure black wall of nothingness burst out of the castle, and consumed him.

He was surrounded by darkness, but despite this, he could see himself perfectly.

"Hello...?" he called hesitantly.

There was no response.

"Hello?" he called again, louder this time.

Suddenly, a figure rose in next to him, facing away from him. He (or she) wore a blood-red cloak that obscured their face, and that was at just the right length so that it covered all of their body while not dragging on the dark ground.

"Um... excuse me?" he cried.

Eerily, the figure turned around to face him. "You..." it said in a raspy, distorted voice. Luigi shuddered. "You are no Hero."

"What?" exclaimed Luigi.

"Yoshi's Island..." the person chanted. "You left it behind."

"No... I didn't have a choice!" Luigi desperately tried to get his point through.

"Rogueport..." they continued relentlessly. "You left it behind."

"There was no way I could've..." he pleaded.

"Your brother..." said the robed figure. "You left him behind."

The words stung Luigi like a swarm of angry bees. He didn't even try to fight it this time; deep down, he blamed himself for his brother's death, despite the fact that he might still be alive. And even if they did find Mario, Luigi still didn't think the guilt would go away.

The figure pulled his hood back, revealing a face Luigi knew well: his brother. "You left _me_ behind," dream-Mario whispered in the same inhuman voice. "I think it's only fair I return the favor."

Out of nowhere, more cloaked figures appeared. They encircled Luigi, and began to grab him, sinking into the darkness.

"No... wait!" Luigi yelled as he was pulled into the abyss. "Stop! No! No! _Noooooooo!_ "

* * *

His eyes shot open, and as made to rise, his head crashed into something rather squishy, yet hard all the same.

"Yoshi?" he cried after seeing who the recipient of his unintentional headbutt was. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! I didn't see you there! Do you need any ice or-"

"No, I'm fine," Yoshi muttered, though his hands were still clasped over his shout. "I should be asking if _you're_ okay. We heard you screaming, and we came to check on you. Did you have another nightmare?"

For the first time, Luigi noticed Koops standing concernedly beside his hammock. "Yeah," Luigi said, trying to calm his racing heart, "I did." He could see Yoshi was about to ask another question, so he hastily added, "But... I'm fine now! Ready to start the day!"

Unsteadily, he dropped out of his hammock and pushed open the door, nearly tripping over a plank that was sticking out of the floor. With a nervous laugh, he strode out into the hall.

"He's hiding something," Koops decided as soon as Luigi left the cabin.

"Definitely," Yoshi agreed.

* * *

Despite the fact that the sun was barely making itself known over the horizon, forecasting another cloudless day, the deck was already bustling with activity. Luigi saw Peach and Toadsworth manning the lookout and Bobbery steering, in addition to Toadette, Boshi, Vivian, Ms. Mowz, Toad, and Gonzales Jr. all rowing, due to the fact that the wind had dropped. Above, Flurrie was trying desperately to produce a gale strong enough to blow the ship's mighty sails, to no avail. Cortez was nowhere to be found, although Luigi wouldn't have been surprised if Cortez was in his quarters, counting his treasure.

"Hi, Luigi!" Toadette greeted cheerfully, despite the fact that she had to help row a massive pirate ship with only five others to help her. "Are you here to help us to row the ship? Even though there's no slots left I guess you could still help someone else like my brother because he's actually pretty wimpy no matter how much he tries to hide it, but don't tell him I said that because he might get mad at me if he finds out and despite his lack of strength he still can be really scary when he's mad and-"

"Toadette," said Toad. "You know that I am literally right in front of you, right?"

"Oh..." murmured Toadette. "Please don't hurt me! I was only joking when I said that!" she shrieked.

"Hey, Luigi! Could you come up here for a second?" Peach called from the crow's nest.

"Sure thing," he replied. He deftly scaled the ladder to the nest. "What do you need?"

"Could you look over there, in the east?" Peach directed.

Luigi nodded and leaned over the edge, careful not to peer downward. He saw a layer of dark clouds lining the horizon.

"Do you think that storm will reach us?" Peach inquired worriedly.

"I don't think so," Luigi replied. "B-But I'm not that sure." Mentally, he kicked himself for stammering. _You're supposed to be confident, Luigi!_ he thought to himself. _How else are you supposed to lead them like Mario said?_

Fortunately, Peach didn't seem to notice. "Okay, Luigi. I trust your judgement. Thanks!"

The rest of the day passed without any change in the breeze – which is to say, the wind stubbornly refused to manifest itself. So the rowers kept rowing, Flurrie kept blowing, and the ominous storm stayed put.

Then, in the late afternoon, something happened. A westward breeze arrived, which happened to be the exact direction they wanted to go. Unfortunately, this also meant that the storm, which had so far remained idle, began to follow them.

At this point, Luigi was already on lookout duty again, and the others were preparing to go down to the galley to eat dinner. It was at that point that he noticed the storm. He could see the flashes of lightning within its confines, as well as the choppy waves that dominated the ocean below it. And it was moving towards them fast.

"Uh... guys?" he shouted. "You might want to check this out."

If his friends responded, he could hear it, as immediately, there was a blinding flash of lightning, followed by the deafening clap of thunder. The sound of pouring rain was audible on the ship.

"What's going on?" He heard Toadette shout.

"I'll tell you want's going on; there's a huge freaking storm right above us!" Boshi yelled.

"I thought you said that the storm wouldn't hit!" Peach exclaimed, her hair plastered to her face.

"Well, I guessed wrong!" Luigi retorted.

"What in blue blazes is happening on _mi navío_?!" Cortez exclaimed, bursting from belowdeck. His ghostly eyes widened as he saw what was upon then. "Arghh! I should have known this would happen sooner of later! Alright, everyone! Listen up! If we're going to escape with our lives, we're going to need to work together, not just stand there like a bunch of seals!"

"Right," Peach agreed. "Okay, here's what we're going to do: Bobbery, you man the tiller. Boshi, Yoshi, Luigi, Koops, Gonzales, and Vivian, you all row as fast as you can; help us outrun the storm. Flurrie, you need to blow that storm away. Everyone else-" Her sentence was cut short as a monstrous wave crashed over the deck, drenching them all in seawater. "...Everyone else," she croaked weakly, coughing up water, "bail out the ship."

They all nodded and got to work. Flurrie floated to the top of the ship, where she blew as hard as she could, but the storm stayed firmly put in its spot right above them. Not only that, but its winds were so chaotic, they caused Flurrie to come crashing right down to the deck, where she landed right on top of Peach.

"Flurrie!" the princess yelled, struggling to be heard over the roar of the waves and rain. "What happened?"

"I'm sorry, dearie, but the storm is much too strong. It blew me off!" Flurrie shouted, an apologetic look on her face.

Peach groaned, then told the cloud spirit, "It's okay. You can just help bailing out the ship."

The storm continued for another hour, and still showed no signs of stopping. At that point, the crew was tiring, as they had worked nonstop while covered in seawater.

Not only that, but the waves were higher than ever before; some of them were even higher than the ship. Even so, it was a stroke of bad luck when one such enormous wave engulfed the vessel, snapping the mast straight off, and dragging it, along with the sail, into the stormy sea.

Cortez cursed. Now they would have to rely completely on the rowers – who, needless to say, were also exhausted.

At that moment, a gigantic wave manifested itself in front of the ship, which meant that they would have no choice but to try to sail over it. Unfortunately, the wave hit its peak before they could do it, and it came crashing down onto the boat.

Luigi felt a spike of pain course through his body as he was violently thrown from his position and slammed into the wall behind him. He tried to get up by pushing himself off the wall, but paused when he realized that there was not wood, but water where the wall should have been.

Immediately, his mind began to panic, despite his efforts to quell the feeling. _It's okay..._ he thought to himself. _It's probably just one hole._

Naturally, because the universe, as always, was feeling rather sadistic, another giant wall of water rose. This time, due to the fact that the ship was already weakened, the wave tore through it, decimating everything. Luigi could feel his friends being pulled away before he, too, was sucked into the water.

His first thought as he was submerged was how cold the sea was. No matter how cold the waves had been, this was easily ten times worse, at the very least. But this was not the time to be complaining about how chilly it was. His first priority was to find his friends.

...Right after he found something for himself to rest on. In all honesty, he was already extremely fatigued from rowing the boat, and he didn't think he could stay afloat for more than a few minutes. He spotted a piece of driftwood floating a couple of yards away, and eagerly swam towards it. Once he reached it, he hugged his arms around it.

Now assured that he was safe, he began searching for his allies on the horizon. Peach and Ms. Mowz had both claimed the same piece of driftwood, and the Squeek was now eyeing Peach's crown craftily. From the princess's shadow, a flame emanated, presumably due to Vivian.

He noted with amusement that Yoshi and Gonzales Jr. had ended up on the same piece of the boat, which the bigger dinosaur looked none too happy about. However, Luigi suspected that he'd rather be with Gonzales than a certain other dinosaur.

Speaking of that other dinosaur, Boshi and Goombella were also sharing a piece of timber. Boshi was flexing his muscles, undoubtedly bragging about his strength, while Goombella appeared ready to jump off of the driftwood altogether. Either that, or just puke her guts out, but that might've been the seawater.

Toadette and Flurrie were also on the same driftwood as each other. Toadette, unsurprisingly, appeared unfazed by the unfortunate turn of events, and appeared to be comforting the actress, who was sobbing uncontrollably. Luigi wasn't exactly sure as to the exact reason for Flurrie's dismay, but he thought he detected the words "eyeliner" and "lipstick." Deciding he'd heard that wrong, he moved on.

Koops, Koopie Koo, and Toad were also sharing a plank, as were Toadsworth, Frankly, and Bobbery.

His eyes narrowed as he counted everyone. He realized that they were missing four people. _Of course, Cortez is probably still on the ship, considering he's undead..._ he pondered. _Which leaves... of course! Punio, Petuni, and Jabble! Where are they?_

His shoulders slumped in relief as he noticed three tiny specks floating in the air, and he realized that Jabble must be carrying the other two. _Well, at least that's everybody..._

Of course, his brief moment of relaxation was interrupted when he noticed that he was slowly, but surely being dragged away from the wreckage of the ship, and to the north. Looking back, he noticed that the same thing was happening to a few others – namely, Toadette, Flurrie, Toadsworth, Bobbery, Frankly, Goombella, and Boshi.

But that was not the part that panicked him.

That would be the fact that everybody else – Peach, Toad, Yoshi, and the rest of them – were all drifting the opposite direction: to the south.

The only ones who were unaffected by what Luigi assumed to be a current or something were the three insects. Eventually, Jabble seemed to shrug and turned to follow Flurrie.

Luigi tried to call out to his southward-traveling friends, but at that moment, the last of the storm swept him away, and they were gone.

* * *

So far, Jolene did not see how her day could get any worse. First, she'd woken up to find that all of the emergency food and water that they'd found in the blimp were gone, despite the fact that, just the day before, there was enough food to last them for at least three more days. A quick glance at Rawk Hawk's beak told her who the culprit was.

Then, a strong wind had nearly toppled the blimp upside down. Thankfully, it had eventually righted itself..

And then, finally, there was their latest problem: a giant storm.

Bandy Andy twiddled his fingers nervously. "Uh... is there any way we can go around that?"

Jolene shook her head. "No. If _somebody_ hadn't eaten the last of our food, maybe we could, but as it is, we'll never reach land without starving unless we go straight through."

"Well, that's just wonderful," she heard Mush mutter under his breath.

As they flew into the storm, Jolene found herself thinking that there was no way that this was a good idea.

"This was, in no way, a good idea!" Andy yelled as lightning narrowly missed hitting their blimp once again.

"I agree," Pete concurred.

"Your complaining isn't helping anyone!" Jolene reprimanded the two wrestlers, who only replied with a meek salute.

"How long do you think we have until this storm passes?" Mush inquired.

"Too long," remarked Jolene.

"The real question is, how long 'til we're hit by lightning?" Rawk Hawk shouted.

At that moment, the blimp shook as a bolt of lightning tore through its top.

"You just had to say something," Bandy Andy said sourly.

Rawk Hawk could only shrug as Mush shouted, "Mayday, mayday! We're going down!" And it was true. The blimp was rapidly sinking, and soon they would hit the water. All of the occupants braced themselves for the inevitable collision.

Well, all except for one. Rawk Hawk, knowing he was the only one who could fly and the only one who could save everyone, swiftly punched one of the windows, breaking it, and flew outside. "Everyone, grab on to the RAAAAWWWWK!"

They all did that without hesitation, and not a moment too soon. Right as Jolene, the last passenger, leaped out the window, the blimp crashed into the inky depths, exploding.

"So... where do we go now...?" KP Pete asked.

"I'm not sure..." Jolene responded. "Rawk Hawk, how long can you keep flying?"

"The Rawk can keep flying for as long as he wants!" the wrestler bragged.

"Well, if that's the case," Jolene said, "then I suppose you wouldn't mind flying us all the way to the nearest populated island, would you? If you can fly for as long as you say you can, then it shouldn't be a problem."

"Oh... well... actually..." Rawk Hawk stammered.

"I'll double your pay," Jolene told him quickly.

"Fine!" Rawk Hawk muttered.

And so he flew them through the storm, and they began their journey to the nearest island: the tropical paradise of Isle Delfino.

* * *

 **A/N: To be honest, I had the worst case of writer's block for this chapter, up until I wrote that cockroach scene. Also, my reason for separating the large group is so that we can get more individual character development.**

 **Anyways, there is a reason for me choosing to put the people from the Glitz Pit on Isle Delfino, but I'll explain that later. Next chapter will have Starlow, Twink, and the other one who I'm still not revealing, in addition to the Koopalings.**

 **Review time!**

 **Sonar: Why, thank you!**

 **Ilu-Icey: All will be revealed soon... Mwahahahaha... Mwahahahahahahaha... MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! ...I'm so sorry.**

 **~I Am A Toad**


	13. Oh No, This Chapter is an Update AHHHHHH

Important Update:

 **DISCLAIMER: I do not own The Legend of Zelda, Undertale, or Steven Universe. Oh yeah, or Mario. And after I actually release an actual update, I won't own this chapter 'cause it won't exist.  
**

 **I am so sorry to all of you who are eagerly awaiting the next installment of this story, but as of this chapter's release, the story is officially ON HIATUS. I know where I want the story to go, but I just can't get it on paper. Now, I'm not abandoning it, just putting it to the side for a little while I exhaust what little talent I have elsewhere.**

 **Again, I'm sorry, but I've had multiple inspirations in other fandoms (namely Zelda, Undertale, and SU) and I don't want to have the obligation to have to finish this story. (In all seriousness, I've had, like, six ideas eating away at the back of my mind.) I will, however, continue this story again in a few months. In addition, you can also check my profile for other stories that I'll be releasing.**

 **Thank you for your understanding.**

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 **(Also, I did not proofread this at all, so I apologize if a) there's spelling errors, and b) if I come off as bratty or something.)**


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